Charanjit Singh captained the Indian hockey side that won gold at the 1964 Tokyo Games
Charanjit Singhs name was not in the Indian Hockey Federations probables list for the 1960 Rome Olympics. But his superlative display of talent at the Bombay Gold Cup, the Aga Khan Gold Cup and the National Championship, all held in Mumbai successively in 1959, forced the IHF to take note of him. As a second thought, Charanjit was drafted into the probables bandwagon. From then onwards there was no looking back for the talented mid-field maestro.
But getting into team was not easy. There were 10 midfielders in the Hyderabad camp, with two sure shots in Leslie Claudius and Keshav Dutt. All other eight midfielders vied for just a single slot, Mumbais Joe Antics leading the pack. However, as Keshav Dutt pulled out the squad due to the captaincy tussle, Charanjit and Antics made it. At Rome, Charanjit, despite being junior to Antics, played all the matches till he was injured in the semis. Many attribute Indias loss at the final to his absence.
Within two years from the Rome disaster, India lost the first Asian Games gold too. Therefore, preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics were earnestly taken up. The first step was to make Charanjit, who was then a student of Amritsar Agriculture College, the leader of the team.
Under the new captain, India won the biggest event held outside Europe, the 12-Nation Ahmedabad Invitation Tournament. Then came the Lyons International Tournament in which all the 12 teams that would play the 1964 Olympics hockey event participated.
These wins helped India to establish its supremacy once again. The Indian players, who had faced a lot of flak for losing the Asiad and Olympic titles, regained their confidence. On returning from Lyon, the team was taken out in victory procession. Captain Charanjit was awarded both the Arjuna and Padma Shree honours.
Before the team left for Olympics, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri told them frankly, “See young men. If you lose the gold, people will say after Jawaharlal Nehru, India is not doing well. I dont want to hear anything like this. So in your winning lies my prestige”
Shastri keenly followed Indian hockey and came to know of our team striking gold at Rome when he was attending a public rally at Gurgaon. He immediately got up on the stage and announced, “Our hockey players have kept their promise given to me”.
Charanjit claims the Tokyo gold was all due to team work. “I had to do many things towards this objective — shifting some to a safer place when not in their elements to keep the tempo”, he recollected. India won all the matches at Tokyo. Yet, the winning team got nothing on return. “Probably because the Punjab Government announced a flat after the Lyons win. Of course, we are yet to get even that”, Charanjit said ruefully. — Hockey Features