Padmashree Pargat Singh - Sikhs The Supreme

Born on March 5, 1965 at Mithapur near Jalandhar and an alumni of Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, which like Khalsa College Amritsar, gave country a number of players of great caliber, former captain and chief coach of Indian Hockey team, charismatic Pargat Singh became an ideal for an entire generation of hockey players, for he was the player who could match the Europeans in their own tactics while retaining the Asian artistry. In recognition to his outstanding contribution made to Indian hockey, he was decorated with PADMASHREE by the Govt. of India.

He appeared on the international scene in 1983 and had the distinction of leading the country in all major international events–Olympics, World Cups, Asian Games, Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. He played 313 international The Mighty Sikhs / 190 matches, out of which 168 matches were captained by him. With abundant natural talent and profound self confidence, Pargat Singh played in three successive Olympics (1988 at Seoul, 1992 at Barcelona and 1996 at Atlanta), two world cups– 1986 at Willender and 1990 at Lahore; two Asian games–1986 at Seoul and 1990 at Beijing; four Champions Trophy Competitions and twice was the member of the Stars All Asian team, which he also captained in 1991.

The most talented and most skilful player and one of the best defenders of the hockey in the world of his time, in whose time Indian hockey revolved around his stick work, full back Pargat captained Indian hockey team in two successive Olympics–first at Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and second at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and thus became FIRST player to lead India in two successive Olympics. At the start of his career, he had first represented India in the 10-Nation hockey tournament at Hong Kong in 1983 at the age of 17 and donned national colors in the Asia Cup, the World Cup and the Asian Games. In 1989, he was selected to lead senior national team and held the berth for consecutive eight years except once in 1993-94.

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