NEW DELHI, Aug 3: Abbas Ali Baig became the first Indian cricketer to be kissed by a lady admirer. Long before, when men’s hockey was an Indian fiefdom, Dhyan Chand evoked a similar response from one of his American admirers, according to a book.
‘Olympics: The India Story’ by Mr Boria Majumdar and Mr Nalin Mehta dwells on the Indian perspective and chronicles, among other things, how Indian hockey reached its zenith before plumbing to nadir, failing to make the cut in Beijing. It narrates how the 1932 Los Angeles Games stood in awe as Dhyan Chand and his teammates displayed sorcery of another kind and mesmerised and enthralled opponents and spectators alike en route to their second Olympic gold, a feat that triggered a massive celebration.The victorious side met Charlie Chaplin in the village, had a tour of Hollywood before they embarked on a fund-raising post-Olympic tour of Europe. According to the book, there Dhyan Chand found himself slightly embarrassed when told about a local girl’s wish. “At Prague, a young lady insisted after the match on kissing India’s hockey wizard, a demand that made him extremely uncomfortable. ‘He is an angel’, she declared before kissing him,” the book narrates.