While golf balls helped Baljit stay agile, he found it hard to spot them

Not everyone likes to be a goalkeeper. It can be a thankless job. A goalie is remembered for the goals he lets in rather than the brilliant saves he pulls off. So when Baljit Singh turned a goalie from a right-half, it wasn’t an easy decision for him to make.

The 28-year-old from Chandigarh was advised by his school team coach Jasbir Singh to take up goalkeeping. Baljit, despite knowing that it would be a risk, decided to follow his coach’s advice.

“Everyone wants to be a striker early on. After all, you are famous only if you score goals,” Baljit had told DNA recently. “I found goalkeeping interesting but I knew it was a challenge. I worked hard to improve my reflexes. I have developed the courage to take on the strikers.”

Training with a golf ball was never easy for Baljit “While it does help you to be more agile, it can get difficult to spot the ball,” Baljit had said.

On Saturday after the incident, even chief coach Jose Brasa criticised the use of golf balls for practice. Coach Harendra Singh believes Indian hockey is jinxed. “First, we had the accidents of drag-flicker Jugraj Singh and Sandeep Singh, now we have this.
Each time a player seems to be in top form, he suffers in such a way,” he said.

Baljit’s roommate at the Balewadi hostel Deepak Thakur said: “He was excited about playing in Europe and representing the country in the World Cup.”