Ashok Kumar, himself an Olympian and former Indian Captain, reminisces about his distinguished father, Dhyan Chand.

IT was only when I was 11 that I realized for the first time that my father, Dhyan Chand, was a household name in this country. Until than I had no idea of his hockey feats. When my mother and my uncle, Olympian Roop Singh, related his achievements, I wondered whether I would be able to play for my country just as my father did, Without telling anyone, I set a goal for myself. I decided if I did anything in life, it would be as a hockey player.

I had very little chance to see and know my father during my childhood. Being an army officer, he would come home only when he was on annual leave. Even then, he would not stay at home, but would be out meeting friends or playing hockey.

There was a basic communication gap between him and other members of the family. We could never muster enough courage to ask him to relate his exploits. It was always Uncle Roop Singh who would recount instances of father’s wizardry.

Father never discussed hockey with us, let alone encouraging us to play it. He did not allow us to get involved in other sports either, because he felt we would not be able to achieve anything worthwhile. Having attained glorious heights himself, I think father was well within his rights to assume that playing games would not be a worthwhile proposition for his children.

We did not approve of his viewpoint though. We strongly felt that being the sons of the great hockey wizard, it would be a shame not to follow in his footsteps. Hockey was in our blood. But we did to dare to offend father by defying him. So we started playing hockey without his knowledge.

My father wanted us to concentrate on our studies and excel academically, so that we could be successful in our careers. He was convinced that sports had very little to offer in terms of career advancement and financial security. It is true that he himself got a great deal out of sports and rose to the rank of major from an ordinary soldier. But everybody, he felt, could not be a Dhyan Chand.

Everyone tries his best to achieve something in life, but if the efforts are not rewarded. One feels sad and disgusted. It is only now that sportspeople have started deriving some monetary benefits. In those days, only those who had genuine interest in sports indulged in it. Even during my heyday, the incentives available to sportsmen, with the exception of cricketers, footballers, and tennis stars, were negligible.

How difficult it was for players to sustain their interest in hockey is borne out by an incident which Uncle Roop Singh once narrated. The Indian hockey team was invited to go to Berlin, but no funds were available. No one was prepared to sponsor the illustrious Dhyan Chand and his side. In desperation he approached politicians and industrialists but they simply laughed at his request. Hockey after all had no status then. He managed to raise the necessary funds with great difficulty. Money was given as charity rather than out of any genuine interest in sports.

Even the playing conditions during his time were atrocious. The grounds were not properly maintained. The players did not have proper sports shoes.

It was probably because of this that my father was against the idea of his sons taking up the game that made him famous. When he realized that my elder brother and I were playing hockey on the sly, he was very annoyed and gave us both a piece of his. mind. At that time, it was beyond our comprehension why a man who had played glorious hockey for decades should contradict himself by not allowing his sons to play hockey. Later on, we did realize that it was for our own good. If we had continued to play hockey without paying proper attention to our studies we would perhaps have been worse off today. Not that our plight is any better, but we feel that we did the right thing by heeding his advice.

Though my father did not take interest in our sporting career, it would be wrong to suggest that he ignored us totally. If we were scolded by him during our childhood for playing hockey, we also obtained kudos when he found out that his sons myself in particular were bringing laurels to the country. 1 still recall the 1975 World Cup victory which was made possible by the all-important goal scored by me after the equalizer by the late Surjit Singh. My father was very elated by my achievement and would often talk to others about it.

But he was very critical of my hockey. When a journalist once asked him about my performance in the 1970-71 national hockey championships, he candidly replied that my. Game lacked maturity and I needed to improve it a great deal. Despite that. My father would never give me any lips regarding the game.

1 was lucky though to get an opportunity to see him in action. That was in 1958-59 when the Sri Lankan hockey team toured our country. Till then I knew about his game only through conversations with my mother and uncle or through articles on him. Sri Lanka played one match in Jhansi in which my father participated as a center forward. He was not keeping good health and was clearly unfit. He had a broken knee which hampered on the field, despite the handicap, I was amazed to see the amount of agility his displayed; the way he was distributing the ball to his teammates was simply superb. He chose each and every ball on merit and waited for the right moment to pass it on to the right player. I don’t remember a single shot of his going haywire. All this spoke of his skill and mastery over the game.

If what I saw of him then is any indication, you can well imagine what he would have been like during his peak in the thirties and forties. Little wonder that the hockey critics described my father as a player who had the ball glued to his stick.

My father retired in 1956, we then shifted from Meerut to Jhansi. Subsequently, when the Rajkumari Amnit Kaur coaching scheme was set up in Delhi. He was employed as a coach. Two years later, he joined the National Institute of Sports at Patiala and was there for 10 years. Thereafter, he shifted to Cuttack where he spent two years. He eventually came back home to jhansi when his eyesight deteriorated and his health failed.

To Be Continued

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 24, 1987