ERROL D’CRUZ

The English language and cricket are touted as two significant legacies of a century and a half of British rule in India.

But what of hockey?

The British, prolific inventors of modern sport, brought the ball-and-stick game to India in the late 1800s. Celebrated by the army, hockey found keen, willing and able pupils who not only wielded the stick with aplomb, but were soon to teach their colonial masters a lesson or two in the discipline they propagated.

Emotions from India’s sporting public will overflow on Sunday, August 4, when the focus will be the Stade Yves-du-Manoir in Paris where India will cross swords with Great Britain in the Olympic quarterfinals.

It will be a repeat of the 2020 Tokyo last-eight clash which India won 3-1 to make their first semi-final since Munich 1972.

The Men-in-Blue eventually finished with a bronze medal to break a 41-year-old medal drought.

Cradled in Punjab – which explains the deep-rooted affinity for the sport – and adopted by the British Indian Army, hockey was to put India on the world sporting map in the 20th century.

The sport spread to all corners of the sub-continent and included a diversity of players in an exotic mix that would enthrall the world in time to come.

Among them were the Anglo-Indians who played a part in helping the Wizard Dhyan Chand stamp India’s authority on the sport at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics where the “colony” began a run of six successive gold medal triumphs until they were stopped by breakaway nation Pakistan in the 1960 Rome final.

But where was the British team?

It’s common knowledge that Great Britain fought shy of Olympic hockey for fear of being drubbed by India to whom they introduced the sport. Losing to a “colony”, it was suspected was an ignominy they did their best to avoid.

So, after winning the 1908 Olympics in London as England, and the 1920 Antwerp edition as Britain, the British Lion hid in its den until 1948 where it was compelled to participate as hosts when the Games returned to London.

There was nowhere to run. Wembley, the iconic football stadium, hosted the final under floodlights. The British Lion was bearded there, in its very own den, as the 4-0 score reveals!

The triumph was epoch-making. It came after India achieved Independence (August 15, 1947) and it was the first-ever meeting between the two nations.

It also was the first gold medal after 1928, 1932 and 1936 where Dhyan Chand was an integral part of the trail of glory. Here it was Balbir Singh Sr who shone with the first of a hat-trick of gold medals to emulate the Wizard.

Independent India held sway with two more gold medals in 1952 and 1956. Two more gold medals followed in 1964 and 1980.

India put it across GB 3-1 in the semi-finals of the next Games at Helsinki 1952 and scored a hat-trick of sorts at Rome 1960 where they prevailed, again in the semi-finals, by a solitary goal.

There, the indomitable Indians met their nemesis — Pakistan, their bitter rivals with whom they were to script a decades-long hegemony that started with the two exponents meeting for the first time ever in the Melbourne 1956 final won by India 1-0.

India and Great Britain did not meet at Tokyo 1964 and Mexico 1968 but when they did at Munich 1972, it ended 5-0 for the Asian giants.

It took 16 years before India and Great Britain squared up to each other in the Olympic Games.

Till around the early 1980s, England/GB were considered a mediocre side even though they impressed now and then – a 2-2 draw with Pakistan (1973 World Cup) and a 1-1 draw with India (1978 World Cup), point in case – but they never really were considered podium material.

All that changed by a quirk of fate.

When the erstwhile Soviet bloc pulled out of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, if affected hockey only to the extent of one nation – the USSR. In came Great Britain as the first reserve nation.

The British got their act right this time around. In 1980 when a US-led boycott denuded the hockey field at Moscow, the Great Britain Olympic body was oblivious it had a team worthy enough to travel to the Games! Or so, reports said.

Los Angeles brought together Great Britain and England’s golden generation spearheaded by the amazing centre-forward Sean Kerly.

Players like Stephen Batchelor, Paul Barber, Richard Dodds, Jon Potter, Jimmy Kirkwood, Richard Leman, Martyn Grimley, Norman Hughes and goalkeeper Ian Taylor were to script history by claiming the bronze medal and break a decades-long hiatus from the podium.

They did so in style – beating their bitter rivals Australia 3-2 to take the honour.

British hockey also gained from the Asian factor that portrayed itself in mercurial forward Imran Sherwani, of Pakistani origin, and a key figure in the 1988 final with two goals. Kulbir Bhaura, of Indian origin, was manager Roger Self go-to player in a grueling campaign in Seoul.

Carrying on as England, the clutch of players at Los Angeles did one better at the World Cup and reached the final where they lost to the old foe Australia 1-2 but the team whose players became household names for a brief while set sights on the ultimate prize at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

It was in the South Korean capital that Great Britain did as they promised – win gold. They did so with a commanding 3-1 win over former champions (West) Germany but not before packing off Australia 3-2 in the semi-finals, courtesy a hat-trick of goals by Kerly.

It was also in Seoul that Great Britain first beat India in the Olympics. The two teams met in the pool’s concluding encounter with India needing just a draw to progress to the semi-finals. But after a goalless first half, Great Britain came out guns blazing and scored three times without reply – Kerly scoring one of those goals, a real classic!

Great Britain had served notice of their intentions at the 1985 Champions Trophy in Perth where, for the first time ever, GB beat India, doing so 2-1.

GB confirmed their supremacy over India with a 3-1 win at Barcelona 1992 but the two nations didn’t play each other in the Games until the Covid- delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo where India reversed the outcome and the scoreline.

It’s going to be a battle of nerves on Sunday.

India are fresh from victory over Australia after 52 years in the Olympics. Great Britain, who went down fighting 1-2 to World Cup champions, came into the Games focussed on the gold medal. Anything less would be a disappointment for David Ames (74 caps) and his team coached by South African Paul Revington.

The team’s talisman appears to be Sam Ward, a feared forward and drag-flicker standing out with a mask he dons after suffering a horrendous injury in an Olympic qualifier against Malaysia in 2019.

Ward his partially blind in his left eye caused by the impact of the ball hit by a teammate, His return to top class hockey is nothing short of miraculous after enduring major facial surgery. The 33-year-old holder of 108 caps remains a key player in GB’s quest for ultimate glory.

Forward Rupert Shipperley (44 caps), defender Jack Waller (69 caps), and midfielders Phil Roper (94 caps) and Zach Wallace (66 caps) have grown in stature by leaps and bounds in a group exuding confidence and effervescence that England/GB sides have shown in recent times.

But they must reckon with a team led by Harmanpreet Singh – a robust son of Punjab, the land where the British first sowed the seeds of hockey that was to benefit not just India but the entire hockey world.