The Partition had affected the hockey players who belonged to UP and some extent in Bihar but not the ones staying in united Punjab.
The 1948 Olympics gold medal would definitely be our proudest moment in hockey since Independence.
We had gone through the Partition, which had also divided the hockey talent that used to exist earlier. I was 14 years old and have a vivid recollection of the jubilation which followed our victory.
It was a sensational performance in the final, where we defeated Britain 4-0 and Balbir Singh Senior, who used to be so deadly in the ‘D’, was the scourge of the rival defence in the match.
One has seen Balbir play and I think he was certainly the greatest hockey player in the post-Independence era. I don’t think we’ve had a better player than him since then.
The Partition had affected the hockey players who belonged to UP and some extent in Bihar but not the ones staying in united Punjab.
In those days, the two main hubs for hockey players were Government College in Lahore and the other base was Sansarpur in our side of Punjab. The Sansarpur boys, Balbir Senior, Udham Singh and Tarlochan Singh were the star players of the team that brought us our first Olympics gold after Independence.
Let me share an interesting story told to me by former Olympian Tarlochan Singh about the spirit of our hockey heroes in those days. Their fighting qualities, along with the tremendous talent they had, was their most shining feature but the spirit has been lacking for quite some years now.
The Punjab Police team had gone to play a tournament in Mumbai in 1948-49 but they lost unexpectedly there. However, the players were full of remorse and they didn’t want to return to Punjab with humiliation. The idea was not to return home till they had won a tournament.
In recent times, I remember how disheartened I was on seeing Baljit Singh Dhillon’s casual approach after he missed scoring a crucial goal in the Olympics. Not that Baljit was not a great player but the spirit was missing.
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