LIFE OF DHYAN CHAND

Major Dhyan Chand (29 August 1905 – 3 December 1979) was an Indian field hockey player, widely regarded as one of the greatest field hockey players in history. He was known for his exceptional ball control and goal-scoring feats, in addition to earning three Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936, during an era when India dominated field hockey. His influence extended beyond these victories, as India won the field hockey event in seven of the eight Olympics from 1928 to 1964.

Known as the Wizard or Wizard of Hockey for his superb ball control, Chand played at international level from 1926 to 1949, where he scored 570 goals in 185 matches, according to his autobiography, Goals. And scored more than 1000 goals in his entire domestic and international career. The BBC called him “hockey’s equivalent of Muhammad Ali”. The Government of India honored Chand with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in 1956. His birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day in India every year. India’s highest sporting honour, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, is named after him. ,

Early life
Chand was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad in a Rajput family [17] [18] to Sharda Singh [citation needed] and Sameshwar Singh. [19] Chand’s father had enlisted in the British Indian Army, where he played hockey for the army. He had two brothers – Mool Singh and Roop Singh, Mool Singh was also a hockey player. Due to his father’s multiple military transfers, the family had to move to different cities, and thus Chand had to finish his education after only six years of schooling. The family eventually settled in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Chand studied at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and eventually graduated from Victoria College, Gwalior in 1932. Being in the army, his father got a small piece of land for the house.

Young Chand had no serious inclination towards sports, though he liked wrestling. He said that he did not remember whether he had played any hockey worth mentioning before joining the army, although he said that he would occasionally indulge in casual games with his friends in Jhansi. [20]

Early career
On 29 August 1922 – his 17th birthday – Chand enlisted as a sepoy (private), the first Brahmin of the British Indian Army. [21] [22] The reorganization of the army that year resulted in the 1st Brahmins becoming the 1/1st Punjab Regiment. Between 1922 and 1926, Chand played exclusively in army hockey tournaments and regimental games. Chand was eventually selected for the Indian Army team that was to tour New Zealand. [23] The team won 18 matches, drew 2 and lost only 1, which received praise from all spectators. Following this, in two Test matches against the New Zealand team, the team won the first and lost the second by a narrow margin. Returning to India, Chand was promoted to Lance Naik in 1927. [21]

After successfully lobbying for the reintroduction of field hockey to the Olympics, the newly formed Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) prepared to send the best team it could to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. In 1925, an inter-provincial tournament was held to select team members. Five teams participated in the opening ceremony – United Provinces (UP), Punjab, Bengal, Rajputana and Central Provinces. Chand got permission from the army to play for the United Provinces team.

In the first game of the tournament, Dhyan Chand and his inside-right Martins combined well as a centre-forward. Chand attracted a lot of attention with his clever stick-art. His fast running and clever passing ensured him a place in the team that participated in the Olympic Games. Early in the game, it became clear that Chand was at his best. Together with Marthins, he took the ball down the right and Marthins did well to give him a good pass. Dhyan Chand scored lightning fast. The ball bounced off one of the defenders’ sticks and went into the net, denying goalkeeper Kohli a chance. A goal within 3 minutes of the start was more than even the most optimistic of UP supporters could have expected. UP were leading by three goals to zero at the interval.

On their part, Rajputana made every effort to score. UP had their goal narrowly missed more than once but emerged winners of an excellent exhibition match (3-1).

Encouraged by the success of the tournament, it was decided that it would be held every two years. After two more trial matches between various hopefuls, the Olympic team (including Chand as centre-forward) was announced and assembled in Bombay. Centre-half Broom Eric Pinniger was chosen as captain. The IHF was initially short of funds as the provinces of Bombay, Madras and Burma went unheeded to their financial appeals, but they managed to raise enough money. The Olympic team then played a match against the Bombay XI and surprisingly lost 3–2, although Singh scored both of his team’s goals. With a quiet farewell, the team left for England on 10 March, where they played 11 matches against local teams as well as the 1927 London Folkestone Festival, winning all. It was also said that Great Britain did not send a team to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics because their national team lost to the Indian team in Folkestone. This is best quoted in Kapoor’s book Romance of Hockey where a message from H. Sutherland Stark, the London representative of “Sports”, a magazine from Lahore, tells the story better than any other comment: “For reasons difficult to understand The English Hockey Association has taken a very strict stand towards it.” Indian hockey has also been repeatedly tweeted by his own supporters in recent years. The editor of a major sports newspaper has described them to me as a highly conservative entity, but behind their reluctance there clearly seems to be something more conservative than ever. Meet India in a full international encounter”. Finally, on 24 April, the team reached Amsterdam to embark on a tour of the Low Countries. The Indian team won all pre-Olympic matches against the local Dutch, German and Belgian teams by wide margins. Won the victory

At the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics, the Indian team was placed in the Division A table along with Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland. On 17 May, the Indian national hockey team made its Olympic debut against Austria and won 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 5–0 to India, with Chand scoring 3 goals. Two days later, he scored 4 goals when India defeated Switzerland 6–0.

The final match took place on 26 May, in which India faced the home team of Netherlands. The Indian team’s better players Feroze Khan, Ali Shaukat and Kher Singh were on the sick list and Chand himself was ill. However, despite a weak position, 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 victory said

It’s not a game of hockey, it’s magic. Dhyanchand is indeed a wizard of hockey.

Later, the Netherlands officials actually broke Chand’s hockey stick to check if there was a magnet inside due to his superb ball control ability. An elderly lady asked him to play with her walking stick and he continued to score goals with it. [26]

On their return to India, the team was greeted by thousands at the Bombay port, while there were three to see them off.

Stationed with his new 2/14 Punjab Regiment in Waziristan in the North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan), Chand, by now a Naik (Corporal), was detached from the IHF, which was until now controlled by civilians. [21] An inter-provincial tournament was being held to select the new Olympic team; The IHF wrote to the Army Sports Control Board to grant leave to Singh to participate in national competitions. His platoon refused. Chand received the news that he had been selected for the Olympic team by the IHF without any formality. However, the rest of his teammates had to prove their mettle in the Inter-Provincial Tournament, which was won by Punjab. In such a situation, seven players from Punjab were selected for the Olympic team. Besides Chand, Broome Eric Pinniger, Leslie Hammond and Richard Allen were the other 1928 Olympians retained in the team. Chand’s brother Roop Singh was also included in the squad as a left-in. Lal Shah Bukhari was chosen as the captain.

The Olympic team played warm-up matches in India before leaving for Colombo. In the two matches in Ceylon, the Olympic team defeated the All Ceylon XI 20–0 and 10–0. A newspaper on the first match wrote, [27] “Perfection is dangerous, because it tempts the gods. For once, it was proved wrong as even the god of weather paid tribute to the talent of the Indian players. Rain clouds, Those who threatened to ruin the game disappeared into the blue, and thousands of spectators had a joyous time marveling at the matchless artistry of the Indian team.

The Indian team left for San Francisco on 30 May and reached on 6 July. They arrived in Los Angeles three weeks before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which took place on 30 July. On 4 August 1932, India played its first match against Japan and won 11-1. Chand, Roop Singh, Gurmit Singh scored thrice each and Dickie Carr scored once. India faced the host United States in the final on 11 August. India won 24–1, a world record at the time (until it was broken in 2003), and won the gold medal once again. Chand scored 8 times, Roop Singh 10, Gurmit Singh 5 and Pinnigar scored once. In fact, Chand, along with his brother Roop, scored 25 of India’s 35 goals. [3] This led to them being called the ‘Hockey Twins’.

A Los Angeles newspaper wrote, “The all-India field hockey team, which GD Sondhi brought to Los Angeles to defend his 1928 Olympic title, was like a storm from the east. They crushed underfoot and All turned out eleven players represent the United States in the Olympic Stadium.”

The team then went on a tour of the United States. He played a match on 20 August against a United States XI, almost the same team he had faced in Los Angeles. Even after loaning out their second keeper, Arthur Hind, for a half, the team won 24–1.

After leaving New York, the team arrived in England. They then embarked on a busy tour, playing nine matches in various countries over a fortnight starting 2 September. He played four international matches against Netherlands, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The team then traveled to Sri Lanka and India and played several matches to pay for their expenses. At the end of the tour, India played 37 matches, of which 34 were won, 2 were drawn and one was abandoned. Chand scored 133 of the 338 Indian goals.

Captaincy and 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics

In 1933, Chand’s home team, the Jhansi Heroes, participated in and won the Beighton Cup, which he considered the most prestigious of the India men’s national field hockey team tournaments. Later, he said: [29]

If anyone asked me which was the best match I played, I would say without hesitation that it was the 1933 Beighton Cup final between Calcutta Customs and Jhansi Heroes. In those days the Calcutta Customs had a great deal; They had Shaukat Ali, Asad Ali, Claude Defaults, Seaman, Mohsin and many others who were in the first flight of Indian hockey at that time.

My side was very young. Apart from my brothers Roop Singh and Ismail, who played for the Great Indian Peninsular Railway in Mumbai, there were no other great players in my team. But I had a team that was determined to do or die.

It was a great match, full of excitement and it was just opportunism that got us the win. The customs department was pressing hard and our target was at their mercy. Suddenly I burst forward and played a long pass from midfield to Ismail, who ran half the length of the field at the pace of Jesse Owens. There was a misunderstanding between Customs’ left-half and the goalkeeper, and Ismail took full advantage to score the only goal of the match. We felt very proud of our victory.

In Kolkata, the Heroes also won the Laxmibilas Cup tournament, which was open only to Indian teams. In 1935, they successfully defended their Beighton Cup title, though were defeated the following year.

In December 1934, the IHF decided to send a team to New Zealand in the new year. Chand and his brother were immediately selected. When Nawab Moinuddin Khanji of Manawadar refused to play, Chand was appointed captain. In the tour that followed, the team played a total of 48 matches, 28 of them in New Zealand and the rest in India, Ceylon and Australia. India won every match, scored 584 goals and conceded only 40. Out of these 48 matches, Chand played 23 and scored a total of 201 goals.

On his return to India, Chand resumed his duties at the barracks. In December 1935, the IHF decided to hold an inter-provincial tournament to select the Olympic team. Chand was again not allowed to leave his platoon, although once again he was selected without formalities. The final team assembled in Delhi on 16 June and played against Delhi Hockey XI. Incredibly, they lost 4–1. After this inauspicious start, the team went on a successful tour of the subcontinent and eventually departed for Marseille on 27 June. They arrived on 10 July, and after an uncomfortable journey in third class compartments, reached Berlin on 13 July. On 17 July, the Indian team played a warm-up match against Germany and lost 4–1. In such a situation, manager Pankaj Gupta informed the IHF that Ali Darakhrab was to be sent immediately to replace the in-form Mirza Masood.

On 5 August, India won their first match against Hungary 4–0. India won the rest of the group matches against the United States (7–0, with Chand scoring 2 goals) and Japan (9–0, with Chand scoring 4 goals). Ali reached Dara on 10 August. Their fourth match was the semi-final against France, which they lost 10–0, with Chand scoring 4 goals. Meanwhile, Germany beat Denmark 6–0, Afghanistan 4–1 and the Netherlands 3–0 in the play-offs. Thus, India and Germany were to meet in the field hockey final of the 1936 Berlin Olympics on 19 August.

On the morning of the final, the entire team was nervous as they had lost the last time they faced Germany. Pankaj Gupta hoisted the Congress tricolor in the locker room. Reverently the team saluted it, prayed and marched onto the field. The German team managed to hold India to one goal till the first half. After the intermission, the Indian team went on an all-out attack and easily thrashed Germany 8–1, incidentally scoring the only goal scored against India in that Olympic tournament. Newspaper reports for the match stated that Dhyan Chand scored four goals, [30] [31] while he claimed in his autobiography Goal that he scored three goals, with Ali Dara scoring two and Roop Singh. Carlyle Tapsell And Syed Jaffer scored one goal each. Describing the game, The Hindu’s special correspondent wrote: [better source needed]

Every member of the team was feeling the stress of the loss to the Germans in the warm-up match and no one was quite in their normal state. I have never seen the Indian hockey team, where the game is definitely of a better standard than the rest of the world, getting so obsessed on the eve of a match. The players were nervous as to what the outcome of the match would be, which was further aggravated by the feeling that the honor of the country rested on their shoulders.

The game was played at a fast pace and was full of thrilling incidents. The Germans undercut and lifted the ball, but the Indian team retaliated with superb half-volleying and amazing long shots. Dara twice tried to score but was adjudged offside. Dhyan Chand discarded his pointe shoes and socks and played with bare feet and rubber soles and intensified in the second half.

Strong German attacks were brilliantly saved by Allen and Tapsell. The goal scored by Weiss of Germany was the only goal scored against the Indians in the entire tournament. The entire Indian team performed brilliantly. Dhyan Chand and Dara impressed with their combination, Tapsel with his reliability and Jaffer with his blistering pace.

Over the years there have been several erroneous media reports claiming that Dhyan Chand scored 6 goals in India’s 8–1 victory over Germany in the 1936 Olympic final. In his autobiography Goal! Chand wrote:

“When Germany were four goals behind, a ball hit Allen’s pads and rebounded. The Germans took full advantage of this and put the ball into the net before we could stop it. It was the only goal scored by Germany in the match against our eight players, and incidentally the only goal scored against India in the entire Olympic tournament. Roop Singh, Tapsell and Jaffer scored one each for India, Dara scored two and I scored three.

International Hockey Federation records also name only three goals out of eight in the final. The final was included in the Leni Riefenstahl film on the 1936 Olympics, Olympia. Overall, in the three Olympic tournaments, Chand scored 33 goals in 12 matches. [3]

German leader Adolf Hitler is said to have been so impressed by Chand’s skills that he offered him German citizenship and the rank of colonel in the German army, which Dhyanchand declined.

East African tour and final tournament

Chand joined his regiment after his return from Berlin. Between 1936 and the start of the war in 1939, he largely confined himself to army hockey, making one trip to Kolkata in 1937 to participate in the Beighton Cup tournament. Before the Beighton Cup, Chand spent four months in an army camp in Pachmarhi. To attend military classes. On 16 March 1938, he was made a Viceroy’s Commissioned Officer (VCO; equivalent to the present Junior Commissioned Officer) with the rank of Jamadar (now called Naib Subedar). [22] Due to the growing need for qualified officers during the war, he was promoted to acting subedar by July 1942 and to war-basic rank in early 1943. [34] [35] On 9 April 1943, Chand received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant in the 14th Punjab Regiment, with the war-original rank of lieutenant. same date. [36]

In the final phase of the war, Chand led an army hockey team that toured the battlefields of Manipur, Burma, the Far East and Ceylon. When the war ended in 1945, Chand decided that the Indian hockey team needed new young players. In 1947, the IHF was requested by the Asian Sports Association (ASA) of East Africa to send a team to play a series of matches. ASA put a condition that Chand should be included in the team. Chand was once again chosen as the captain.

The team assembled in Bombay on 23 November 1947 and arrived in Mombasa on 15 December and played 9 matches in British East Africa, winning all. Chand, though now in his forties, still managed to score 61 goals in 22 matches.

After returning from the East African tour in early 1948, Chand gradually decided to phase out his involvement in ‘serious hockey’. He played exhibition matches, captaining the Rest of India team against state teams and the 1948 Olympic team, which defeated Chand’s team 2–1, even though Umdaraz Chand scored his team’s only goal. Chand’s last match was leading the Rest of India team against Bengal. The match ended in a draw after which the Hockey Association of Bengal organized a public function to honor Chand’s services to Indian hockey.

Final year

Chand continued his emergency commission in the Indian Army with service number IEC 3526 even after independence, but was apparently not given a regular commission. In 1951 he was honored at the opening ceremony of the Dhyan Chand tournament at the National Stadium in India, which he participated in to the applause of the audience.

After 34 years of service, Chand retired from the Indian Army on 29 August 1956 as a lieutenant (acting captain). The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in the same year.

After retirement, he taught coaching camps in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. Later, he accepted the position of Chief Hockey Coach at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, a position he held for several years. Chand spent his last days in his home town of Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Chand died of liver cancer on 3 December 1979 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. After some initial problems in getting clearance, he was cremated at the Jhansi Heroes Maidan in his hometown. His regiment, the Punjab Regiment, accorded him full military honours.

Respect

The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is named after him by the Government of India (GOI) to honor his contribution to Indian sports. The Sports Ministry gives this award every year to the best performing player of India in international level championship. [16]
Dhyan Chand Award, a lifetime achievement award named after Dhyan Chand.