Twenty-two years ago on this day India won the Asian Games gold. It came like a bolt from the blue. The success led to national rejoicing and celebration went on for days. The triumph lifted the morale of Indian hockey fans, frustrated by failure for years. The hero of the epoch-making victory goalkeeper Ashish Ballal revives memories of that exhilarating moment in an exclusive tete-a-tete  – Editor

By ERROL D’CRUZ

Gold or bust! That was the credo shared by Ashish Ballal and a clutch of players in the India squad at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.

“We knew it was the last opportunity for some of us and we weren’t going to let it slip,” says Ballal, the goalkeeper who did a star turn in the final against South Korea on December 19. His two saves against the defending champions in the tie-breaker proved crucial as India clinched the gold medal, only their second at the time, after 32 years.

Ashish Ballal – ever cheerful and ready to cheer his team on                  Photo: K. Arumugam collection

Ballal for one, stretched the limits to bring his country the coveted prize. Even if it meant hotly debating the strategy of making way for A. B. Subbaiah, considered by the team management to be a better bet when it came to the tie-breaker. With the battle still far from over, Ballal, exemplary in goal during normal time, wasn’t in the mood to step aside.

“I was told by the coach (MK Kaushik) that I could be tired and Subbaiah would be a better choice,” Ballal reveals as the teams got ready for penalty strokes after a 1-1 scoreline at the end of extra-time. I asked the coach whether Subbaiah had any penalty stroke defence practice, anyway,” Ballal flashed back to tense moments before the tie-breaker. I then told Kaushik that if he wanted the gold medal for the country, I must play.”

Kaushik relented. Ballal brought off two saves and the stroke takers did their job to perfection with cent percent conversions. India won the duel 4-2.

“Everything clicked for us in the shootout. I don’t remember an India team converting all strokes in the tie-breaker. Not that our stroke taking was brilliant but it appeared that God Almighty looked after us on that day! It was an emotional reward for all the hard work and dreams. With the national flag fluttering we were a bunch of cry babies,” he says with a chuckle. “We won the only Asian Games gold medal in the very same city in 1966,” says Ballal who was quick to spot the tryst as celebrations began.

Before the tournament, Ballal paid close attention to the words of Dr Vece Paes attached to the team – he said every sportsperson must have a big ticket prize in the trophy cabinet to be remembered by.

“Many of us had an Asian Games silver medal but not gold. Nor were there any Olympic or World Cup gold medals with any of us.” But success at Bangkok was a bigger challenge than anyone would have thought. “It was a most controversial period for Indian hockey at the time. There was chopping and changing of players in the national team.

“To make matters worse, the Asian Games squad received no encouragement from the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) headed by KPS Gill with secretary K Jothikumaran in tow. “They simply didn’t believe we could win the gold medal.”

“Many of us senior players – Anil Aldrin, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Baljit Singh Saini, to name a few – joined me to take the initiative to plan for success at the Asian Games.

Ashish Ballal with Asian Games gold medal                                                                       Photo: K. Arumugam collection

 “We departed to Bangkok without as much as a send-off by the federation officials and there wasn’t any motivational talk which would really have helped before a difficult campaign. “But we were grateful for the efforts of MP Ganesh (former India captain), director Sports Authority of India, with whom coach Kaushik enjoyed rapport and it helped our preparations at the camp in Bengaluru,” the 50-year-old recollects.

“The team had had its up and downs and there were differences in the camp but they were left behind when the matches commenced. “We didn’t carry that baggage on to the pitch and even though many players didn’t share eye contact in the dressing room, they played for each other. “It certainly paid off,” World Cupper and Olympian Ballal reminisces.

Amusingly, among those who celebrated the triumph were IHF and Indian Olympic Association officials who abandoned the team in the build up to the Games. “Needless to say, they took 100 percent credit for the success. It’s all so etched in the memory.”

Also rife in the memory was the shocking treatment meted out to the team when six senior players – Dhanraj Pillay (tournament top scorer with 11 goals), Mukesh Kumar, Sabu Varkey, Subbaiah, Sandeep Somesh and Ballal himself – were dropped under the pretext of “being rested”.

“The federation was given the theory that the team should look years ahead and blood youngsters for the future. The IHF, Ballal remembers, was acting on advice given by a top functionary of Indian Airlines Sports Control Board and an office bearer of the IHF very close to Gill. A prescription that he feels was to result in the ill health of the sport for years to come.

“The team that played a series against Pakistan was soundly thrashed.” “Worse still, it tarnished the image of Indian hockey which the Bangkok triumph boosted so remarkably. “Instead of going to the next level we were back to ground zero.

“We lost the opportunity of attracting a whole generation of young players who would have decided the game wasn’t worth playing after the turn of events.” “It was a potentially huge market of young players lost. What a pity!”

In many ways Ballal believed the whole sordid happening was a result of a quirk of fate.

A journalist picked up a few murmurs at the camp when the squad’s kits failed to arrive a week before our departure and the story was blown up in a leading magazine. Ballal, though, prefers to dwell on the more endearing memory of the gold medal triumph, India’s second out of just three in all (2014 was the last).

A former Indian Airlines stalwart, Bengaluru-based Ballal is now employed by Air India as Deputy General Manager and head of Corporate Communications and Sports. He ran the Ashish Balal academy in a quest to give back to the game as well as the Ballal Academy for Sports Education that involved the development of tribal talent especially from Odisha and Jharkhand. Altruistic efforts which one wagers stems, in part, from a momentous happening in Bangkok 22 years ago.

The 1998 Asian Games team: Anil Aldrin, Ashish Ballal, Lajrus Barla, Sameer Dad, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Mukesh Kumar, Captain Dhanraj Pillay, L. Prabhakaran, Mohammed Riaz, Baljit Singh Saini, Ramandeep Singh, Sandeep Somesh, A.B. Subbaiah, Dilip Tirkey, Thirumalvalavan, Sabu Varkey

Chief coach: MK Kaushik