Hockey Features

Tokyo Olympics: The Indian men's hockey team, once unbeatable, is now not a surety for a medal any more although the current contingent raises some hopes of a podium finish after over 40 years.

Balbir Singh's relationship with the sport goes way beyond the goals and the trophies. It was like a timeless love affair, one that he described quite vividly in his autobiography.

India has had a dominating show at the Asian level and would like to reiterate that.

India would be looking towards reinforcing their Asian credentials with another gold medal.

The story of Abdul Samad from Bhopal is an inspirational one as he has overcome many difficulties in his path of playing national hockey for India.

It'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.

Andy Hayward's goal in the dying minutes denied India a chance to split points with New Zealand in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament.

The new rules will see the traditional two halves of 35 minutes each replaced by four 15-minute quarters, with additional 40-second time-outs before penalty corners and after goals have been scored.

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.

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.

It is the sixth day of the London Olympics and Google has chosen this time, to represent hockey as its chosen sport for Wednesday.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.