Author’s note: Its a gratifying day for me as forgotten hero Shankar Laxman, Olympic gold medallist, has been brought to centre-stage in the Hockey India Annual Awards, conferring him the Lifetime Achievement Award. Its a great recognition for a player who deserved everything, but got nothing in his lifetime.
My article in the Great Indian Olympians, given below, gives full account of Shankar Laxman’s glorious life. I consider bringing Shankar Laxman to the limelight in the 90s is my best of researches. I am also sure this article is the most plagiarised work of mine! I consider the goalie as the second most greatest Indian player after Dhyan Chand, and the reasons for this are well enumerated in the below given article.

Shankar Laxman: The Incomparable

The Venue is Tokyo; the year 1964; the date 23rd October and the occasion, Olympic hockey final. Defending champions Pakistan takes on 6-time winner India. The atmosphere is tense, and is becoming increasingly thrilling with each passing minute. Initially a physical one, the match slips into classic artistry, with both sides sweating blood to score a goal or prevent it from occurring against them. As true index of the fight, half time ends with a blank score board. Five minutes into the resumption of play, India tastes a goal. A penalty corner hit leads to a stroke which Mohinder Lal flicks past the diminutive Abdul Hadi, he Pakistan keeper.

http://www.stick2hockey.com/Article/1966-Asiad-Gold-40th-Anniversary/128.html

It ignites fire in Pakistan’s belly. It’s free-flowing forwards press hard. Relentless attacks and counter attacks mark the spell. The crowd witnesses a finest exhibition of the attacking brand of hockey, the trait that led both the giants to this summit clash. Another twenty minutes lapses with the ball swinging from one circle to other. India still holds on to the slender lead. When only ten minutes remain Pakistan becomes desperate. With that emanates the Tsunami like surges from its fleet-footed forwards led by irresistible Md. Afzal. The two lions (Singhs) – Gurbux and Prithipal – in the Indian defence prevent goal from being scored against their team, but not before giving away a plethora of penalty corners. Every time the awe-evoking Munir Dar unleashes lightening shots, the Indian custodian rises to the task. He puts a leg to kick it off, or applies the stick to deflect it in the nick of time. He is always across the trajectory of the ball – unbelievable for Dar who had already gained a reputation in the tournament collecting five goals in the earlier matches and whose look and confidence can send chills down the spine of the rivals.

But his personal acumen seemed to have lost some of its effect on that day. The goalkeeper, cool and collected, blunts even the most furious of shots with an hawkish eye, immense concentration and anticipation. Dar’s drives and Afzal’s goal-bound moves were held in check by the cool authority of the goalkeeper.

As a result the equalizer eludes Pakistan and as the final whistle is blown, India’s moment of glory returns. The victors in the field, the eleven excited grey-blue-jersey wearing Indians, rush to the circle and lift the goal-keeper in a frenzy. India’s 1964 gold gained at the Komaza Park is try the goalkeeper’s game. The stocky Shankar Laxman is the hero of the day.

Hockey circle, a journal of repute, observed: ‘Pakistan fought well but veteran keeper Shankar Laxman saved brilliantly a penalty corner shot. There were other shots and other saves, for Laxman, the ball was the size of a football. It was his afternoon of glory and fame.’
Quite truly, for, in every winning goal at least three players have had a hand – one who earns the penalty corner, one who strikes it and the one who gives the finishing touches to the resultant penalty stroke. In Shankar Laxman’s achievement that day only his alertness, anticipation and courage stood in tandem.

In ‘Goal’ Dhyan Chand lays down seven attributes to a successful goal keeper, and places courage, which Laxman exemplified, at the top. Thirty years later, Harbinder Singh, the flying centre forward who played first of his three Olympics at Tokyo, reminisces vividly, “Everybody recalls the Tokyo Olympics by the goal that Mohinder Lal scored in the final. But I think the real hero was Shankar Laxman. His was simply great goalkeeping. He was just unbeatable during the last ten fifteen minutes when Pakistan had many penalty corners, and there were five to six rebounds. Mind you, there were no chest guards and helmets during those days; just the pads and the stick.” Harbinder’s words deserves mention because he knew the exact intensity of attack India had to sustain for its gold. He stood behind the Indian net for about five minutes in the first half when Shankar Laxman had to be treated for a minor injury.

http://www.stick2hockey.com/Article/Shankar-Laxman-Remembered/270.html

In fact, Laxman had a point to prove in this competition. Two years before, after the 1962 Asian Games, critics were out with knives at his throat. In Jakarta, both the undefeated teams — India and Pakistan – reached the final which ended goalless. In the repeat game that was played the next day, Pakistan emerged winner at a score of two-nil. India had a problem in the match with its centre-half Charanjit Singh, who would lead India in the 1964 Olympics, getting injured at the very start of the match. Therefore, India had to play the vital match with only ten players as against Pakistan’s eleven. …….

‘Goal-keeping is a thankless job’. Thus wrote Dhyan Chand in a coaching manual. This proved correct in this case. The comment certainly hurt Laxman but he took it in his stride. In fact, he became even more determined to prove his critics wrong. What a way he refurbished his image at Tokyo, the same city where India had lost its supremacy to Pakistan six years earlier.

Tokyo was Laxman’s third Olympics. His feats in the two previous appearances too were no less exciting. At Melbourne in 1956, Ranganathan Francis, a refugee from Burma, settled in Chennai, was hailed as the world’s best goalkeeper, but he was rested for the final and the 23-year old Shankar Laxman, who was in his first Olympics, was preferred. At Rome four years later, younger C. Deshmuthu was the other goalkeeper with Laxman. Here too Laxman played the final, not the younger one. …………………. Laxman set up a unique record of being the only keeper in India to play three Olympic finals.

Its not just appearances but also the achievements that need eulogy. In all the three Olympic finals, all against the same rival (Pakistan), the outcome was decided by a lone goal. In the 1956 and 1964 Olympics, no Pakistan forward could send a shot past Laxman, unlike what Naseer Bunda did at Rome in 1960.
With two Olympics already behind him, Shankar Laxman was the second senior player in the squad after Udham Singh in the Tokyo Olympic team. Yet, Charanjit Singh, who had only one Olympic cap till then, was made captain and Laxman his Deputy. In the hockey world, only forwards were considered ‘born’ leaders. India’s Olympic captains from 1932 to 1956 belonged to this elite echelon till midfielder Leslie Claudius broke this mindset in 1960. Secondly, the belief that goalkeepers are not leadership material was strong in the psyche of the powers that be.

History was made when Shankar Laxman was invited to lead India in the 196 Asian Games. Thus, he became the first goalkeeper in the world to lead his country…….rest in the Great Indian Olympians book

In all Shankar Laxman played three Olympics and three Asian games finals, all against Pakistan. In four of the six finals, he did not allow any goal for the rival. In the remaining two, he conceded only three goals. Six finals and three goals conceded, must rank a wonderful record for any goalkeeper.
Fittingly he received the Arjuna award after the Tokyo Olympic gold and Padamshree after the Bangkok Asian Games gold, to become the first of the three non-Olympic captains and the only goal-keeper to be honored so.
Shankar Laxman was born on July 4, 1933 in a big family of Mhow, a small cantonment township in Madhya Pradesh. After the sixth standard he quit studies in pursuit of the game he liked most. He first played the National Championship at Bombay in 1955. The same year, he obtained the country’s colours in the Youth Festival held at Warsaw. Laxman conceded no goals in the ………………… 12-Nation Lyons Tournament (1963), a test series against Malaysia and New Zealand (1964) and the 10-Nation Hamburg Tournament (1966) in that glorious spell.

Before the Hamburg victory, Laxman added another feather to his cap by emerging victorious in the coveted National Championship. The final of the 1966 Pune Nationals ended in a goal-less draw due to his heroism. He did an encore against the most difficult customer Mohinder Lal, who shot to national fame after his penalty stroke conversion in the 1964 Olympics. But here, Shankar Laxman dived to his left to block his bullet like strokes. Railways and Services perforce shared the Trophy that year

The Significance of Shankar Laxman’s role in India’s glorious legacy was felt in his absence too. After he hung his boots, no India goalie survived the rigours of three Olympics. The fall of India’s fortunes in the next Olympics (1968), where for the first time India failed to clear the semifinal, could be traced to absence of goal-keeper in the mould of Shankar Laxman. India lost the semifinal to Australia at Mexico in the 1968 Olympics. ………… Many say Shankar Laxman did not go for the Olympics, as he was denied leadership, which is a matter of further research.

Legendary Ranganathan Francis once portrayed the role of goalkeeper thus: ‘Like the inner fortress of a city when the outer wall has failed, a goalkeeper stand alone between his team and destruction.’ Sadly for India after Shankar Laxman not many custodians of courage stood between the team and destruction.

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