Fabulous Personalities- 4

(29 AUGUST 1905 – 3 DECEMBER  1979 )
Dr.Sundar ram MBBS., MD

If you glance through the history of our national sport, there will always be a special mention of Dhyan chand ,the man who mesmerised the sporting fraternity with his extraordinary stick work and ball control skills that saw him earn the nickname “HOCKEY KA JADUGAR”(jadugar in hindi means magician).

EARLY LIFE

He was born on August 29, 1905 in Allahabad to Sameshwar Singh(a soldier in the British Indian army) and Shradha Singh with the birth name of Dhyan singh. He had to terminate schooling at the age of six owing to his father’s repeated transfers. As a young kid, he had no intrest in field sports leavealone hockey. He had his heart in wrestling. Apart from occasional
games with his friends in Jhansi, he did not play any hockey worth mentioning until he enrolled himself in the army in 1922. It was in the army that his dribbling skills were noticed by Subedar-Major Bale Tiwari who later turned into his mentor and helped Dhyan improve his skills.

BUDDING SORCERER

His time in the force saw him play various hockey tournmaents and regimental games between 1922 and 1926. He progressed through the ranks and got into the Indian army team for a tour to NewZeland in 1926.That team fired on all cylinders and emerged victorious .Dhyan chand in particular garnered  lot of praise for his wonderful performance  and was promoted as LANCE NAIK in the Punjab regiment. It was a sign of thingsto come.

OLYMPIC CAREER AND INDIAN DOMINANCE

He was selected as centre forward for 1928 Amsterdam olympics where Indian  hockey debuted in the olympic games. India cruised through to the finals and humbled the hosts Netherland 3-0(Chand scoring two) to claim the country’s first olympic gold. Chand was the top scorer of the tounament with 14 goals in 5 matches. He was hailed by the news dailies as the “HOCKEY WIZARD”. India went on to rule the roost in international hockey emerging triumphant in the successive olympic  games in 1932 and 1936. It was like when India played with any opponent ,there was always one winner possible.  Dhyan Chand even led the team in 1936 Berlin olympics .His influence extended beyond these victories as India won 7 olympic golds out of 8 in the field hockey event between 1928-1964.

ADULATION FROM LEGENDS

He was fondly called as Dhyan Chand by his teammates as he practised hockey during the night under moonlight after his duty hours (moon in hindi is called Chand). During his sojourn in Australia in 1935 ,he met Don Bradman(considered the greatest cricketer to have played the game). After watching Dhyan display his exquisite strokeplay, Don paid tribute to the Indian legend remarking “Chand score goals just like we score runs in cricket”. Such was the ease and consistency with which he scored his goals. Bradman and Chand might be regarded as equisentials as far as their respective games are concerned. Even the Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler ,known to be a prejudiced person and a supremist, was dazzled by his skillset and had offered him German citizenship along with a senior position in the military for his scintillating performance.  

AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

  • He scored an astonishing 570 goals from 185 matches between 1926-1949.
  • To honour him, the residents of Vienna, Austria had setup a statue with four hands and four hockey sticks , depicting his mastery in the game.
  • He was conferred the Padma Bhushan –the third highest civilian award in India by the government in 1956.
  • His birthday is observed as National Sports day in India in which the President gives away sport related awards.
  • He is the one and only hockey player to have a commemorative postage stamp and the First-Day cover in his honour.
  • DHYAN CHAND AWARD is India’s highest award for lifetime achievement in sports awarded annually since 2002.

His autobiography titled “GOAL” was published in 1952.He is considered as the greatest player to have played the game of hockey worldwide. If hockey was as popular as cricket , Sachin Tendulkar would have been hailed as Dhyan Chand of cricket. No parallels can be drawn to his skills, till date. He possessed excellent ball control, passed judiciously and his goals were lightening quick. He also had excellent game awareness. It was like he was the only one imponderable while everybody else including the opponents fell in predictable patterns around him. He is truly a legend, in every sense, the younger generation can
look up to!!!