DHYAN CHAND Date of birth: August 29, 1905
Dhyan Chand, as it was back then, is still the biggest name in Indian hockey. Keshav Dutt, the twotime gold medallist after Independence, called him “the Bradman of hockey, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli rolled into one.” Shy and diminutive, Dhyan Singh Bais became Dhyan Chand after the moniker was given to him by India team manager Pankaj Gupta. He also became not just a sporting icon but also India’s identity in the preindependence era, separate from being a colony of the British.
Born in 1905 in Allahabad, Dhyan Chand got into hockey seriously only after joining the army, following in his father’s footsteps. His rise as a player was as mercurial as his goals and he was part of the rstever Indian hockey team to travel abroad, to New Zealand, in 1926. That tour saw India winning 18 games and losing only one, but, more importantly, it established Dhyan Chand’s reputation as a player and a scorer. His selection for the 1928 side, however, was on the back of his performance for the victorious United Provinces in the interprovincial tournament.
Dhyan Chand was the standout player for India at the 1932 Amsterdam Games as well, scoring 14 goals in ve games including two in the nal. Inducted into the side without trials in 1932 and captaining in 1936, Dhyan Chand set the gold standard for Indian hockey. He played domestic hockey for 28 years and became a coach at the National Institute for Sports, Patiala, after retirement before breathing his last on December 3, 1979, in Jhansi.
While all his children played the game at dierent levels, Ashok Kumar was the only one who reached a similar level of success, winning the 1975 World Cup. His birthday, August 29, is celebrated as National Sports Day.
Information sourced from: Proles of Indian hockey Olympians by K. Arumugam, an initiative of Hockey India; India and the Olympics, by Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta; Goal by Dhyan Chand; ocial 1928 Olympics report by the Organising Committee.