Hockey suffered the most after the Partition in 1947. Lahore region that gave 7 of 18 Berlin Olympics team members, went to Pakistan. The Anglo-Indian lot (9 out of 16 in the 1928 Olympics) left in droves to settle abroad. The British team, who till then refrained from Olympics hockey, was back in the fray.

Against this historic background, Balbir Singh Dosanj played an outstanding role in restoring the hockey honour of India at the first Post World War Olympics – in London (1948). Not many would have expected the 24-year old centre-forward to inherit the legacy of Dhyan Chand at the London Olympics so easily and elegantly.

Balbir Singh scored 6 goals to outplay Argentina (9-1), making a hat-trick on debut at Wembley grounds. Perhaps a forerunner he would later attain a hat-trick of Olympic gold. In the final against the British, latching on to passes from captain Kishan Lal and Kanwar Digvijay Singh ‘Babu’, Balbir pumped first two goals against the British to give Independent India’s first Olympic gold. The glory, coming after 12 years gap and largely deriving strength from native talent, re-established India’s suzerneity that last for another one and half decade.

Format posed a problem in 1952 Helsinki Olympics as India was directly seeded in the quarterfinal, leaving no chance to relax. As the flag-bearer of the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony, Balbir Singh saw India labouring hard to defeat Austria (4-0) in the quarters. He could just score only once. In the semi-final against the masters Great Britain, Balbir Singh made all amends. India’s all three goals came from his extraordinary ball sense, artistic but limited dribble and first-touch scoring shots. A second hat-trick in only his fourth Olympic match.

In the final, he made mincemeat of Holland’s defence (5 goals) for India’s fifth Olympic gold. “Ball with Balbir Singh in the circle, and the defence is paralysed,” exclaimed his peer Keshav Dutt.

In the run up to the XIIth Olympiad at Melbourne, Balbir was in great form (Malaysia tour 1954: 83 of the 121 goals in 16 matches; a year later in the New Zealand-Australia tour, 141 of 203 goals in 38 matches). Under Balbir’s captaincy India annexed its sixth straight gold at Melbourne. Balbir was injured even as he was playing which led him to comment later: “For me, on one hand was the agony of pain, on the other the ecstasy of winning glory, of triumph. The latter outweighed my pain. It now mattered little even if I lost both my limbs.”

His post-Olympic career too was colourful. He changed his employment from Punjab Police to accept the leadership of the Sports Department of the Punjab government. The State emerged as sporting giant under his stewardship He also served many stints as national coach, selector and manager. India won its only world Cup in 1975 — he was the manager. Elated Balbir Singh soon penned his autobiography The Golden Hat trick: My Hockey Days. He received ‘Padamshree’ in 1957 — first one to get it when it was introduced. Balbir Singh now lives with his son in Canada.