Growing up in the 1980s, we watched more Hockey than Cricket. It wasn’t a matter of choice, as Doordarshan, which was our only option, showed every single game India played, almost anywhere in the world. I also read everything I could find on India’s outstanding achievements in Olympics.
Dhyanchand capturing the imagination of Hitler was a particularly favorite moment. The romantic in me likes to believe that for all the horrors of Nazi Germany, when Hitler asked Dhyanchand to play for Germany and not for British India, he entertained a possibility of personal redemption. If hockey could convince a bigoted Hitler to overcome his racial prejudice, then Dhyanchand must have been a magician.
Anyway, I liked Hockey. It was always an aesthetic spectacle, especially when played by Indians and Pakistanis. It was fantastic to watch the flowing game that Zafar Iqbal, Mervyn Fernandez, Mohammad Shahid and a young Pargat Singh played. The two Pakistani stars of that era, Hasan Sardar and Shahbaz Ahmad were simply sensational.
By the 1980s, hockey had already become a sport of power and strategy and the finesse of the South Asian sides often got them nowhere. Still, sensational dribbling by Shahid and Shahbaz as well as Pargat’s audacious defending along with regular forays, more in the fashion of a Left-in, remain etched in mind. One game in particular, against Germany in the 1987 Champions Trophy at Perth, with India trailing by 1-5, Indians played inspired hockey to come back and draw the game at 5-5, with Pargat, starting from his own half, dribbled past six or seven Germans before scoring a spectacular goal.
Mukesh Kumar, Ashish Ballal and especially, Dhanraj Pillai were worthy successors, both aesthetically and in terms of their commitment to the sport.
It simply saddens me that India cannot even qualify for the Olympics today.
It has been a long decline for Indian hockey and now that it is on its deathbed, no postmortem report will help.
On another day, we will find causes but today is for mourning.
Post a Comment