Satinder to officiate in Jr World Cup Hockey 
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| Planet Field Hockey |
September 30, 2001 
The Times of India
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CHANDIGARH: As someone who took to umpiring as a hobby few years back, he had never thought of making it big bagging several international assignments within a short span.
Now he is ready to fly to Hobart to officiate in the seventh Junior Men's World Cup Hockey.
Having started umpiring only in 1996, 36-year-old Satinder Sharma has come a long way in short span of time. The Junior World Cup will be his sixth international assignment.
The tournament, which begins on October 9 at Hobart, has 16 teams in fray including India who are grouped in pool C alongwith Canada, Scotland and Spain.
Satinder, who started playing hockey at the age of 13, represented Chandigarh as left back eleven times in the nationals. He played his first nationals in Meerut in 1983 and captained the team that won bronze in the National Games in 1995.
What made him take to umpiring? "Watching internationally acclaimed umpires like Kuku Walia, Satinder Walia and A S Bawa in action, I just took the plunge," Satinder said here.
Satinder is one of the only two grade one umpires in the country, the other being Blaise Monterio from Mumbai.
On what makes him a much sought-after umpire, he says, "my years as half back, where I needed to run backwards while facing the on-rushing opponents, helped me keep an eye on the proceedings of a match. Plus, I believe a good umpire should be physically fit, be able to concentrate, keep his cool and take quick and neutral decisions."
The State Bank of India employee still remembers his first most cherished international assignment.
"It was Akabar-el-Yom Tournament in Cairo, Egypt, in February 2000 in which South Africa, Egypt, Switzerland and India participated. After this tournaments kept coming my way," he said.
He said there was a need to give a fillip to the game of hockey, the national sport of the country. For this, Satinder said, "we need to have sponsors at junior level to promote the sport. I also believe that more and more tournaments should be played at the junior level as they act as a nursery where talent can be spotted and groomed.
"We should have more training camps where the players are given expert guidance," he said.
Satinder was all praise for the current team picked for the World Cup. "This is the best under-21 team that we can possibly have. One can only hope that they come back winning a gold from Australia".
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