Now that Viren Rasquinha, former India hockey captain, has officially made the announcement of his comeback for the much-hyped World Series Hockey (WSH), the 31-year-old Mumbaikar has already got down to business.
He is pushing himself to regain match-fitness and with a high profile job of being the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), attempting a balancing act is not going to be easy.
“It was very important for me to get the consent of the OGQ board before I signed with the organisers. All the athletes at OGQ have been extremely excited and in fact, Gagan (Narang) and Mary Kom said that it would be a motivation for them to watch me back on field,” he exclaims.
“Now I have to strike a balance with working for OGQ as well as play hockey. My primary focus for the next 45 days is going to be fitness and sometimes I have stayed up late and practiced on my own in the past couple of days,” states the Arjuna awardee.
He says the toughest challenge of making a comeback has been waking up early for practice. “Over the years I have got into this comfort zone of working till late in the night and waking up late the next day but during the time I was playing for India, I led a disciplined life. I would sleep by 9.30pm or 10 latest and wake up by 5am. I think doing the same now is the toughest part of the comeback,” he adds.
It was a few weeks ago when the organisers of WSH approached Rasquinha and expressed their desire to have him on board. But he did not want to jump into a conclusion hastily. “I asked the organisers for two weeks time. During that period I put myself through some workouts to see if my body would take the strain. NowI know I can make it happen,” he explains.
His return comes close on the heels of Dhanraj Pillay’s decision to make a comeback at the age of 43. “I’m thrilled about the comeback. Playing hockey makes me the happiest. One, it offers good money and then most importantly, a lot of top players from the world are playing the Series and I certainly needed a big platform to be motivated enough to train again,” he says.
“Personally, I am not thinking of India comeback. I know my fitness level is far from that. I just want to be a good role model for young players and also the OGQ athletes.”
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