Born on 20th June 1946, the  cool-headed defender from the tribal belt of Jharkhand, Michael Kindo rose to fame in the early 70s. The first adivasi player to get the prestigious Arjuna Award (in 1973) was born in Raighma village of Ranchi in Bihar (now in Jharkhand).

Michael Kindo picked up the hockey stick while at the Boys Middle School, Kurdeg. However, his hockey career actually got a fillip when he joined Indian Navy after finishing his schooling. He represented Services at the National Championships without break from 1966 to 1973, winning the best Services sportsman award in 1971. He then joined Indian Railways and represented them at the nationals for four years from 1974 to 1977, winning four golds, and Orissa (1978-1980) after joining Steel Authority of India (SAIL) in Rourkela.

He made his international debut in 1969 for the test series against Kenya. However, Kindo had to After sit out a whole year before returning to national favour for the SEA Regional Hockey Tournament in Singapore in 1971. He played in all of the first three World Cups (1971, 1973 and 1975) winning bronze, silver and gold respectively, before retiring in 1975. He was also part of the Indian team at the 1972 Olympics and 1974 Tehran Asian Games. At SAIL, Kindo was responsible for getting Astro turf  installed at the SAIL Hockey Academy.

The pioneer of tribal hockey and a great human being expired on 31st Dec 2020