The Hockey Wizard – Dhyan Chand
Dhyan Chand is widely known as the all-time greatest hockey player and “The Wizard of Hockey”. His goal-scoring potential was incredible, and his dribbling made opponents look like sitting ducks. Chand was a key figure in India’s three successive Olympic gold medal victories in 1928, 1932, and 1936. His Birthday, 29 August is recognized as the National Sports Day, and the President of India gives away the most prestigious sports awards of the country like the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Arjun, and Dronacharya Award on this day.
Early Days
Born on the 29th of August 1905 in Allahabad, young Dhyan Chand had no interest in sports, though he loved to wrestle. He never took hockey seriously before joining the Army at the age of 16 in 1922. Subedar-Major Bale Tiwari first noticed his dribbling skills and became his first mentor and helped Dhyan Chand in improving his game. From 1922 to 1926 he used to play Army hockey tournaments. Eventually, he was selected for the Indian army team tour of New Zealand.
His Game
After the Indian hockey team played their first match in the Berlin 1936 Olympics, a German newspaper carried the headline, “The Olympics complex now has a magic show too”. Dhyan Chand’s magical skills were making the people wonder, How the ball never leaves his Hockey stick? Hundreds of spectators used to come and after every match India played, they would touch Dhyan Chand’s hockey stick to solve the riddle. Everybody thought there was a magnet hidden somewhere in his hockey stick which made the ball never leave at all. The Hockey Authorities of Netherlands once broke his stick to see if there was some magnet hidden inside of it!
In the same Olympics, Dhyan Chand was not able to play due to his injury. In the Half-time of the game, when India was only being led by 0 – 1, Dyan Chand removed his shoes and took India to a stunning victory scoring 6 more goals. Adolf Hitler could not bear the humiliation and left the grounds before the match ended.
As the rumor goes, he later offered Dhyan Chand the rank of Major in the Army if he migrated to Germany, Dhyan Chand refused.
An Unfortunate End…
In 1956 at the age of 51, he retired from the Army, coached for a while, and later got settled in Jhansi. The last days of Dhyan Chand were not very happy; he was short on money and badly ignored by the nation. Once at a tournament in Ahmedabad the staff turned him away not knowing who he was.
He developed liver cancer and was sent to the general ward in AIIMS, New Delhi. He slipped into a coma and died on the 3rd of December 1979, uncared for and penniless in the hospital.
He died, perhaps feeling bitter, about the way his countrymen, the Hockey Federation, and the Government treated him. Two months before he died, he made a remark which clearly showed his state of mind, he said, “When I die, the world will cry, but the people of India will not shed a tear for me, I know them.”
But we, as a nation, need to question ourselves if what he said was wrong?
Parting Note
Today, Delhi has a stadium named after him, also the government has issued a postage stamp after him, but all and everything was done after his death. It is a sad state of our nation that we remember our athletes either after something terrible happens to them or if they do something extraordinary there is No in between.
Legendary players like Dhyan Chand are forgotten by our nation, we only accept our players when they are in all their glory. This needs to be changed soon.