Hockey Features
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'Luck by Chance' - On the Hockey TurfIt's a Sunday morning and you're about to start a game of hockey and suddenly a familiar face approaches you and politely asks 'can I get a game?'. You're stumped on a hockey turf because you don't know how to answer that question when a former Indian Hockey Captain is the one asking you that question.
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Hockey World Cup: Resurgent India Look to Halt Australian Juggernaut
India bounced back well to beat Malaysia 3-2 after losing back-to-back matches to start with and Sardar Singh's men would draw from the new-found self-belief when they come face-to-face against the marauding Australians.
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Former hockey players lambast 'bunch of mediocre' Olympians
There is a dearth of quality hockey players in India and the present national team possesses a "bunch of mediocre" individuals who are just satisfied to be Olympians, feel yesteryear stars of the game.
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1980 Olympics: India win hockey gold as top teams stay out
After a tumultuous period following the hockey debacle at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, India fielded a relatively young but talented side for the Moscow Games where barring skipper Vasudevan Baskaran and goalkeeper Bir Bahadur Chhetri, the rest made their debut.
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1976 Olympics: India's worst show in hockey
Barely a year after winning the World Cup in the hot and steamy Kuala Lumpur, Indian hockey slid to its nadir amidst considerable controversy and acrimony among players as the high profile team finished a shocking seventh. The unheralded New Zealand won the gold on the spanking new synthetic pitch that made its international debut.
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1972 Olympics: Germany's triumph ends Asian dominance
The Indian hockey team to the Munich Olympics sported a new look with only four players from the 1968 edition making the cut. Making his Olympic debut was Ashok Kumar, son of legendary Dhyan Chand and also the fiery forward B.P. Govinda, who went on to become an iconic figure with the distinctive head band.
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1968 Olympics: India's slide in hockey begins
Behind the veneer of "unity" and "team spirit" that was projected to the public, Indian hockey was almost torn apart by petty politics, groupism and ego clashes in the months leading to the 1968 Mexico Olympics where Indian hockey's slide well and truly began.
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1964 Olympics: India regain hockey supremacy
The echoes of the 1960 Olympics defeat could be heard in Tokyo where the Indian hockey team was not expected to win, at least according to the Indian media that doubted whether the gold medal could be regained given Pakistan's ascendency.
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1960 Olympics: Pakistan dethrone India
It turned out to be a landmark competition for Indian hockey as the country's dominance at the World level, and specifically the Olympics, ended with the loss to Pakistan in the final. Though India were to regain the gold four years later and again in 1980, the wheel of fortune had turned.
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1956 Olympics: India's dominance continues
The discerning reckon the hockey team to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, led by centre-forward Balbir Singh, was one of the best ever to leave Indian shores. The squad was brimming with experience and youth besides tremendous firepower. It was hardly a surprise then that the team came away with another gold medal, the sixth in a row.
