He scored six goals in the final against Germany at Berlin prompting Adolf Hitler to offer him the post of Field Marshal
The history of Indian hockey will be rendered insignificant without due honour to the greatest exponent of the game — Dhyan Chand. Indian armys maiden tour of New Zealand in 1926 left no doubt about his superlative skills and scoring prowess. His stick seemed to possess some unexplained magical dexterity.
Such were his credentials that he was selected for the Olympics without trials, which the simpleton resented as “unfair” in his autobiography Goal.
However, surprisingly, captaincy was denied to him for long till the Western Asiatic Games in 1934 only to be taken away for the next assignment just to accommodate a high profile player! He did not utter a word and took things in his stride.
Record books showed six goals against Dhyan Chands name in the classic final against Germany in the Hitler Olympics (1936), but he argued that he scored only three goals — such was his honesty and greatness. No wonder he was described “one who employed the minimum of perspiration and the maximum of inspiration.” The entire history of Indian sports has not seen one so gifted yet so modest. Impressed by what he saw of Dhyan Chand, Hitler offered him the post of Field Marshal in the German army. Dhyan Chand refused.
Genius Dhyan Chand used innovative tricksto score on the spurof the moment, rather than follow copybook patterns. He had anuncanny knack of spotting a gap before it was there and scoring through deception.
Dhyan Chand made scoring against some of the powerful teams like the easiest task. In all, 133 out of 338 in the 1932 pre-Olympic tour, 59 out of 175 in the 1936 Pre-Olympics, 19 out of 35 in Los Angeles Olympics and 11 out of 38 in the 1936 Berlin Olympics are a few among his phenomenal goals tally. In 1935, on a tour that included New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia, he scored 201 goals, figuring in 43 out of 48 matches.
“You score goals like runs in cricket,” an awe-struck Don Bradman told him after watching him in action in Adelaide. On the 1947 East Africa tour, the 42-years old scored 61 goals in 22 matches. Even age could not diminish his penchant for goals.
He had taken up the tour as the host nation had made a special request to the Indian Hockey Federation and said, “No Dhyan Chand, no team please.”
— Hockey Features
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DNA newspaper is serializng seven articles profiling a famed hockey legend sourced from ‘Great Indian Olympians’ where, as co-author, I covered hockey.