Why Dhyan Chand was called the Hockey Wizard?
Dhyan Chand brought world fame to India, as he tops the list of the Indian hockey players. He was called the hockey wizard. On seeing his swift moves and the constant movement of the ball with his stick, the Germans suspected that Dhyan Chand’s hockey stick had magnets fitted inside it. His hockey stick was broken up and nothing of that sort has found in it. He continued playing the game with another stick and went on scoring goals one after another. Hence, he established the reality beyond doubt that he was the greatest hockey player of his time.
Dhyan Chand was born on 29th August 1905 at Allahabad in India. He pursued his studies there in a higher secondary school. He joined the Brahmin Regiment of the army as a soldier to support his family. He developed a liking for hockey and he was so much obsessed with the game that he started devoting all his spare time to it. In those days, there were no official facilities for training hockey players so he had to learn it all on his own.
In 1928, India earned the first gold medal in hockey in the Olympic Games played at Amsterdam (Holland). Dhyan Chand was a member of this winning team. On 26th May when the final hockey match was about to be played between India and Holland, Dhyan Chand was running very high fever. But as a brave soldier, he did not shirk his duty. He entered the field like a lion and helped India to record a 3-0 victory by personally scoring two wonderful goals. In the 1932 Olympics hockey championships, India defeated America by 24 goals to one and earned the gold medal. In that match, Dhyan Chand alone scored eight of the 24 goals.
India played 48 matches against New Zealand and Australia in 1935. In these matches India scored 584 goals. Dhyan Chand alone scored 200 goals out of the total of 584 goals. In the 1936 Olympic hockey matches played at Berlin, India again won the gold medal in Berlin by scoring 38 goals. Out of these 38 goals, 11 goals were scored by Dhyan Chand alone. For his contribution to the Berlin victory, he was promoted from the rank of ‘sepoy’ (soldier) to that of ‘naik’ (corporal) by the British government of India. Later, Dhyan Chand was promoted to major in 1947, when India won freedom.
In recognition of his services to hockey, he was honored with the prestigious ‘Padma Bhushan’ national award.
Dhyan Chand died on 3 December 1979.
Category: Sports