Baldev Singh

For more than forty years Baldev Singh has coached hockey, much of it in the small Haryana town of Shahbad Markanda. In 2026 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of sports, from Punjab ^[1].

Becoming a coach

Singh was born on 15 November 1950 ^[2]. He took a master’s degree in history from Punjabi University in 1977 and a hockey coaching diploma from the National Institute of Sports in Bengaluru in 1979–80 ^[2]. He started out with the Namdhari hockey team at Bhaini Sahib ^[2].

Shahbad Markanda

He joined the Haryana Sports Department in 1981 and became coach at Shahbad Markanda on 1 January 1982 ^[2]. He set up a structured system of training there, left in 1986, and returned in 1993 ^[2]. Over the years the town became one of India’s most productive hockey centres ^[2]. In all, according to his citation, he has guided more than 80 international players and eight India captains ^[2].

With the national team

He was chief coach and a selector of India’s junior men’s team in 1993, and assistant coach when India won the Champions Trophy in Chennai in 1996 ^[2]. He was chief coach of the senior men’s team at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 2000 and coached the side from 2001 to 2004, when India won the Asia Cup ^[2].

He retired from the Haryana government as a deputy director in 2008 but kept working there until 2015 ^[2]. He later coached at Khalsa College, Amritsar (2019–2023), and sat on the government’s Olympic Task Force set up in 2017 ^[2]. He received the Dronacharya Award in 2009 ^[2].