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The legendary Dyan Chand, known as ‘the wizard’, came down to our town Kovilpatti to coach the local team. Major Dyan Chand is undoubtedly the greatest player the game has known. He had retired from the Indian army and from competitive hockey when he visited our town. He was well past his prime. And yet there were vestiges of his early wizardry in the way he played. The ball seemed to obey his every command.

So one could imagine how his game would have been when he was younger and in top form. He took part in three Olympic tournaments starting from 1928, and scored a plethora of goals. In the 1932 Olympics India defeated America by 24 goals to 1, and Dyan Chand scored nine of these.

In the Berlin Olympics (1936) Hitler watched Dyan Chand dribbling past numerous defenders and scoring goals. He felt there must be some trick in the stick, for those days Indians were associated in the minds of Westerners with magic and mystery, like the Indian rope trick. So Hitler is said to have asked Dyan Chand’s stick to be confiscated and replaced with another. But the Indian magic still worked. After India had thrashed Germany in the final, Hitler offered Dyan Chand a Colonel’s post in the German army provided he became a German citizen. (Dyan Chand was at that time a lowly Lance Naik in the Indian army) But of course he rejected Hitler’s offer. According to another story, his stick was seized and broken open to check for magnets or other devices. They couldn’t comprehend the way the ball adhered to the wizard’s stick seemingly in defiance of all laws of science.

I am very happy indeed that I was able to play hockey with the wizard several days.

Other notable players I was able to see in action were the Olympians Balbir Singh, Udham Singh, Raghbir Lal, Francis, Desamuthu, Claudius and Peter. There were others who never represented India in the Olympics, but were good players nevertheless. These included Ramsbotham, Almeida, Jimmy Carr, Manuel and many others.

I saw the Indian Olympic team playing in a tournament in Bangalore in 1953. Balbir Singh (centre-forward) bounced the ball about from left to right and back as he raced past his opponents. Sometimes the ball bounced from Balbir to Udham Singh (left-in) and back and then to Peter (right-in) and to Raghbir Lal (right extreme), who crossed ball across the field in an angled shot which was diverted into the goalmouth by a crisp shot or a flick by Udham Singh or Balbir Singh. Truly hockey was a very thrilling game.

That game was quite different from the hockey we see nowadays. Today it is more like a hit and run game with quick passes and short pushes. There is very little dribbling or stick work. The mastery of the stick over the ball is not much in evidence now. The aesthetics of the game has taken a beating.

The reason for the change in the style of playing could be the rules passed by the World Hockey body that was made up of Western countries. They declared as illegal all that they couldn’t do, and which the Indians could with ease and style. Stifled by these new rules, Indian hockey went into decline. As the premier nation of hockey, India should have been properly represented in the world hockey body that made the rules. Secondly, some retired Indian Olympians of the earlier eras should have been appointed as coaches instead of bringing in foreigners. That would have promoted the Indian style of hockey.

Well, let’s hope times will change and there will be a great revival of Indian hockey.

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