Major Dhyan Chand - A Legend of Indian Hockey Field
Major Dhyan Chand was born in Allahabad on 29th August 1905 in a Bais Rajput family and died on 3rd December 1979. Dhyan Chand was an Indian field hockey player widely known as one of the greatest and confident players in the history of the sport, especially in hockey. He was known for his extraordinary playing and making goal-scoring feats, in addition to earning three Olympic gold medals, in 1928, 1932, and 1936, before independence during an era where India dominated field hockey. His game was appreciated by German leader Adolf Hitler and he offered him German citizenship and a position of Colonel in the German Army. His influence extended beyond the many victories, as India won the field hockey event in seven out of eight Olympics from 1928 to 1964, because of Dhyan Chand.
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Major Dhyan Chand - A Legend of Indian Hockey Field |
Dhyan Chand was Popularly known as The Wizard or The "Jadugar" of Hockey
Dhyan Chand was Popularly known as The Wizard or The "Jadugar" meaning Magician of hockey for his superb ball control. According to his autobiography, called Goal, he was played internationally from 1926 to 1949 and he scored 570 goals in 185 matches. In 1956, the Government of India awarded him, India's third highest civilian honor of Padma Bhushan. In India every year, Chand's birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day. This year I mean 2021, PM Narendra Modi declared, "India's highest sporting honor the Khel Ratna Award was renamed after Major Dhyan Chand".
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Birth Day of Dhyan Chand - National Sports Day |
Dhyan Chand's Early Life
In Dhyan Chand's family, almost all are hockey players, and all played hockey for the British army. He was the elder brother of another hockey player Roop Singh and his father's name was Subedar Sameshwar Dutt Singh and his mother's name was Sharadha Singh. His father was Subedar in the British Indian Army, and he also played hockey for the army. Dhyan Chand's education was not done properly because his father had to move to different places on transfers. He studied up to the sixth standard only when his family members were in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. In Gwalior, Dhyan Chand graduated from Victoria College, in 1932. Being in the military as a subadar just below the officer level, his father got a small piece of land for the construction of a house.
Dhyan Chand was very much interested in wrestling rather than hockey, he had no serious inclination towards sports or hockey at his young age. He stated that he did not remember whether he played any hockey worth mentioning before he joined the Army, but in Jhansi, he played occasionally casual games with his friends.
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Tribute to the "Wizard of Hockey" |
Early Career of Dhyan Chand
Dhyan Chand was selected on 29th August 1922, on his 17th birthday as a sepoy-meaning private army in the British Indian Army. A reorganization of the army that year resulted in the 1st Brahmans becoming the 1 in the 1st Punjab Regiment, between 1922 and 1926. During this period Chand exclusively played army hockey tournaments and regimental games like anything and make his place permanently in the British Indian Army. Ultimately Chand was selected for the Indian Army team which was to tour New Zealand.
Dhyan Chand's First Tour to New Zealand
In New Zealand, that year the team was played 21 matches and the team won 18 matches, drew 2, and lost only 1, receiving praise, and applauds from all spectators. Following this, in the two-Test matches against the New Zealand squad, the team won the first and narrowly lost the second. This tour made Dhyan Chand as the renowned hockey player of the Army team and the best player of the Indian hockey team. Returning to India, Chand was promoted to Lance Naik in 1927, at his early age just 21-year-old.
Indian Hockey Federation - Selected Olympic Hockey Player
It was a big challenge to the newly formed Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) to select the best team to send to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. After successfully lobbying for reintroducing field hockey in the Olympics, IHF made preparations to send its best possible team for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. In 1925, an Inter-Provincial Tournament was held to select the best team players. Finally Indian Hockey Federation selected Five teams participating in the inaugural nationals, namely United Provinces (UP), Punjab Provinces, Bengal Provinces, Rajputana Provinces, and Central Provinces. And Dhyan Chand got permission from the Army to play for the United Provinces team.
Dhyan Chand was Selected for the Olympic Game
In its first game in the tournament, Dhyan Chand as the center-forward, and Marthins, their inside-right, together performed very well. They played their game very interestingly and Dhyan Chand attracted much attention with his clever stick-work. That is dribbling, just keep pushing the ball to the left and right of the stick. His penetrating runs, making goals and judicious passes seemed to assure for him a position in the Indian Hockey team that is to take part in the Olympic Games. Early in the game, only Chand had proved that he is the right player for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. A goal within 3 minutes of the start of the game was more than what the most optimistic of the UP supporters could expect. At the interval, UP led by three goals to nil.
After two more trial matches between various hopefuls, the Olympic team including Dhyan Chand as center-forward was announced and assembled in Bombay. Center-half Broome Eric Pinniger was selected as the captain of the Indian Hockey team for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic game.
Dhyan Chand and 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Game
In the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics, the Indian team was put in the division-A table, with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Switzerland. On 17 May the Indian national hockey team made its Olympic debut against Austria, winning 6–0, with Chand scoring 3 goals. The next day India defeated Belgium 9–0; however, Chand only scored once. On 20 May, Denmark lost to India 5–0, with Chand netting 3. Two days later, he scored 4 goals when India defeated Switzerland 6–0.
The final match took place on 26 May, with India facing the home team of the Netherlands. The Indian team's good players Feroze Khan, Ali Shaukat, and Kher Singh were on the sick list and Chand himself was ill. However, even with a skeletal side, India managed to defeat the hosts 3–0 with Singh scoring 2, and the Indian team won its country's first Olympic Gold Medal. Chand was the top scorer of the tournament, with 14 goals in 5 matches. A newspaper report about India's triumph said, "This is not a game of hockey, but magic. Dhyan Chand is in fact the magician of hockey".
After completion of the Olympic game, on returning to India, the team was received a warm welcome from thousands of people at the Bombay harbor.
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