An award for lifetime achievement in sport is already named after Major Dhyan Chand. (Videograb) Major Dhyan Chand was the first superstar of hockey, considered a wizard or magician of the game. He was the chief protagonist as India won three consecutive Olympic hockey gold medals — Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932, and Berlin 1936. He is said to have wowed the watching public with his sublime skills, intricate dribbling and gluttonous scoring ability.
During those tournaments, there was no team that could compete with India — and most of the matches saw huge victory margins.
India beat hosts the Netherlands 3-0 in the 1928 final, the United States were thrashed by a scarcely-believable margin of 24-1 in the 1932 gold medal match, while Germany went down 8-1 in the 1936 decider.
In all, Dhyan Chand played 12 Olympic matches, scoring 33 goals.
Due to some uploading error,a minute of the video got trimmed, here’s the full clip of Dadda!
Thank you @prasarbharati for preserving this treasure🙏 pic.twitter.com/Yaz5uM6xy9
— Prithvi (@Eighty7_Fifty8) February 21, 2022
A rare video footage of Major Dhyan Chand’s interview to Prasar Bharti has surfaced where the greatest hockey player is narrating one of his trips to Berlin Germany in 1963, where he saw how the European countries used to work hard to learn the art of dribbling from the Indian players.
“The Europeans learned the art of dribbling from Indian hockey players. I remember in Berlin 1963, the photographers from Germany and the Netherlands used to attend India’s practice session. They used to take the photos in slow motion, fast motion and later in the evening it was showed to their team,” narrates Dhyan Chand.
“They used to watch, how our players are dribbling. Where are their hands, legs, what is the head position. Thye have practiced it over the period of time they aced the art of dribbling,” he adds.
The modern game is an altogether different sport from the one played in Dhyan Chand’s era. The Europeans and Australians have become much more proficient over the decades, while the change of surface has put a premium on fitness, speed, stamina, and physical strength.
Dhyan Chand’s birthday, August 29, is celebrated as National Sports Day with the President giving away the Arjuna Awards and the other honours — including the one now named after Dhyan Chand himself.
An award for lifetime achievement in sport is already named after him. The Capital’s National Stadium was renamed Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award will now be named after Dhyan Chand.
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