Canada warms up to the game of ice hockey with a dash of Punjabi flavour

“Maareya shot, kitta goal!” Even at the turn of the century, this exclamation during a commentary on a hockey game in Canada would have been as unlikely as a Czech commentary for an Indian Premier League (IPL) game. Hockey in Canada automatically means ice hockey, and the game is to the nation what cricket is to India. For decades, the sport has been dominated by Caucasians, both on and off the rink. But 12 years ago, an unlikely star was born — Harnarayan Singh, a garrulous, excitable Sikh from Brooks, Alberta, whose arrival in the commentary booth dramatically changed the way Canadians looked at the game. Singh, 35, who found fame as a face of the pathbreaking television show Hockey Night in Punjabi, now offers a rink-side seat to an account of his success in One Game At A Time — My Journey From Small-Town Alberta To Hockey’s Biggest Stage, co-written with Michael Hingston (McLelland & Stewart, 2020).

Singh had always dreamed of being a hockey broadcaster, but equally, never dreamed that he could actually become one. Born to immigrant parents from India, he grew up imbibing every Canadian kid’s obsession with hockey. As a five-year-old, armed with a toy mic-and-speaker set he got as a birthday gift, he was providing full-fledged commentaries to his own imaginary games played out at home. “I would have been doing that in English because that’s what I was seeing on TV and would have never imagined that a show in Punjabi could even exist,” Singh says from his home in Calgary, Alberta.

By 2008, he was working as a freelance reporter with the state-run Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC, where he quickly impressed with his knowledge and coverage of hockey events. Still, he froze in disbelief when he received a call one day from the producer of Canada’s biggest hockey show, the iconic Hockey Night in Canada. CBC was pushing to expand the audience for its flagship hockey show, and with Punjabi being the fourth most widely spoken language in Canada, after English, French and various Chinese dialects, Hockey Night in Punjabi was born. The show turned out to be an instant hit but still had to go through several challenges over the years to survive, as Singh narrates in his book. Today, mainstream brands produce commercials in Punjabi to reach the community through the show.

He recounts instances of meetings with sporting greats, including The Great One. Even someone who does not follow hockey should know that’s Canadian hockey hero Wayne Gretzky.

Back when Hockey Night in Punjabi began, the quintessentially Canadian sport being covered in the Indian language was so unusual that it became a media event in itself. But over the years, Singh has observed the game reaching new audiences. “I was at a local hockey arena and met a Punjabi family, they said they started watching our show, became fans of the sport and put their kids into hockey because of the show,” Singh says. His own daughter and son, 5 and 3, are budding players, not surprising given that Singh and his wife Sukhjeet held their wedding reception at a hockey arena with a cake shaped like the Stanley Cup.

Singh’s story is also a commentary on how Canada itself is changing, with immigrant communities claiming a seat at the table in various fields, from culture and sports to politics. “I was cautioned from giving this a shot because of how I looked and I wanted to provide that story of inspiration,” he says. A few months after his famous Bonino call, Singh’s childhood dream came full circle — he was taken on board as a commentator in English for Hockey Night in Canada, the first Sikh in that role.