NEW DELHI: When you're born in a family that has given the country four top-flight hockey internationals and a celebrated coach, the hockey stick is surely your first toy.
It starts with a plastic one and gradually goes to the one the professionals use. For Hardik Singh, India's star midfielder and current vice-captain, it's a similar story. It follows a definitive path that had to happen. Hockey runs in the blood. His grandfather Preetam Singh Ray was a renowned hockey coach in the Indian Navy; father Varinderpreet Singh donned the national colours; paternal uncle is none other than one of India's best drag-flickers ever Jugraj Singh; aunt is Golden Girl of the yesteryears Rajbir Kaur, whose husband is the illustrious half-back Gurmail Singh, who was part of the Indian team that won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
