Hockey’s Sikh Legend: Balbir Singh, Senior
A free-wheeling tête-à-tête with the triple Olympic Gold Medallist
By: Harjap Singh Aujla
Balbir Singh Senior is today Indian hockey’s most successful living legend. Well into his eighties, standing six feet tall, a fully practicing Sikh Balbir Singh Senior still looks very impressive.
His looks defy his age. In his eighties, when most of the people slowdown considerably, he leads an active life. He lives roughly for six months in Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and for six months, he stays in India mostly in Punjab.
He leads an active retired man’s life, but touch wood, he is in good health. His grasp over several big and small issues is commendable and his memory is still excellent. His analysis of the present day plight of Indian hockey is very thought provoking.
Most of the people in India believe that Major Dhyan Chand has been India’s most brilliant hockey player ever, but he was the product of nineteen twenties, when Olympic competition was not very much tough.
But Balbir Singh is the product of Post World War II Olympics, when the Europeans started building up their sports and youth programs in right earnest and the Pakistanis started taking hockey very seriously. Thus India was made to struggle really hard to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
In the last week of September 2007, this writer was on a social trip to Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. At one dinner gathering myself and Sardar Balbir Singh Senior were both present. I wanted to have a feel as to how he felt about the rise and fall of men’s hockey in India. This chance meeting provided ample opportunity to talk to him about the once glorious days of Indian hockey and the bad times through which Indian hockey is passing at the present juncture. He is an eye-witness to the steady ascendancy and free-fall of hockey in India.
When he was selected for the first time as a member of the London bound Indian Olympic Hockey Contingent in 1948, India was on the top of the pyramid of the World’s hockey playing nations.
Had the World War Second not been on, he could have been considered to represent India even in 1944 as the youngest teenage player of the team. According to him he was brimming with energy in 1947-1948. India won the Olympic Hockey Gold Medal in 1948 rather easily.
It was an extremely thrilling and exhilarating experience, the whole World seemed at India’s feet and aspiring to catch up with the wizards of hockey. In 1948, the Sikhs of Punjab were in the vanguard of Indian Olympic Hockey Contingent. I was told earlier on by Tarlochan Singh Bawa, another member of the 1948 Indian Olympic Hockey team that during those days the Sikh players used to be all “Saabat Soorat Sikhs”. They were tall, broad shouldered and swift as lightening.
The competition during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics was much tougher, but India had the momentum and it prevailed despite all odds. The heat was really turned on against India during the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Balbir Singh Senior was the captain of the Indian squad. The league matches were completely one sided in favour of India with a couple of dozen plus goal wins against the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union, but the matches against West Germany and Pakistan were very tough. India could barely manage to win both these matches by identical one goal margins. The victory in the final against Pakistan was very exhilarating. A victory is after all a victory, even with a razor thin margin and it was elating.
Balbir Singh thinks that the introduction of expensive astroturfs has hit India very badly. Nice and thick slow growing grass is India’s advantage. We were always great on grass, which is easy to grow and cheaper to maintain in India.
But the Europeans countries introduced synthetic turf, which, being an imported item is expensive to lay in India. We have far fewer synthetic turfs in India compared to any European nation.
Balbir Singh thinks that India’s loss at the hands of Pakistan in the final of 1960 Rome Olympics was a very tough loss to digest, not only for him personally but for the entire Punjab and India. A three decade plus old all conquering record was shattered in just one bad moment in the game. The final match was by all indicators an evenly played encounter, but the luckier and the more opportune team won. India’s team was in no way inferior to Pakistan’s in any department of the game. The game was fiercely contested, we had better of the exchanges, but the luck eventually smiled on Pakistan. According to Balbir Singh, India took the sweet revenge during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, when in an evenly played game India took the Gold medal by capitalizing on a well earned penalty stroke.
India’s real downfall started after the 1966 Asian Games. India defeated Pakistan for the Asian Games Hockey Gold Medal in 1966 by a solitary goal margin in Bangkok Asiad. Balbir Singh Senior had not represented India in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics as well as the 1966 Asian Games, but as an enthusiast of hockey he was all along keeping track of the performance of the Indian Hockey Team. Balbir Singh thinks that no single reason can be assigned for the down fall of Indian hockey.
India’s downslide in hockey is due to accumulation of a number of factors, which can be discussed one by one. As a true sportsman, Balbir Singh still hopes for a bright future of hockey in India, but the nation and Punjab shall have to work extremely hard for that goal to be attained. The field is getting more and more crowded and the competition is getting tougher and tougher.
Balbir Singh analyses that Indian youth’s lack of physical fitness, in comparison with the rich Western European nations as well as India’s poor nourishment diet compared to Pakistan and Korea, is a serious handicap for the Indian hockey players. When we used to win, physical fitness levels of the other hockey playing nations were
not too much superior to ours. The Indian were almost at par with the Europeans in height, speed, strength and stamina and we had an edge in the art of dribbling and clever play. Brilliant dribbling got us the goals and in plenty. Dribbling abilities are still with us, but physical strength needed after entering the scoring area and the stamina to stay in the game till the final whistle are lacking in us, We lose most of the matches after having complete upper hand during the first half, but our stamina lets
us badly down in the second half as well as during the dying minutes of the game.
According to Balbir, we need to work on this weakness. He thinks that we may have not weakened, the others have improved.
Balbir Singh thinks that the introduction of expensive astroturfs has hit India very badly. Nice and thick slow growing grass is India’s advantage. We were always great on grass, which is easy to grow and cheaper to maintain in India.
But the Europeans countries introduced synthetic turf, which, being an imported item is expensive to lay in India. We have far fewer synthetic turfs in India compared to any European nation. Synthetic turf requires very strong calf muscles and strong bicep muscles. Since our players train on grass, they do not develop very strong muscles like the Europeans do. This weakness lets us down in tournament after tournament.
India’s umpiring in the domestic tournaments is heavily weighed in favour of soft players. Indian umpiring does not accept brute aggression in the forward line and in the defenders. The Europeans are hard tacklers in defence and ruthless in the scoring areas.
Even most stylish players like Dhanraj Pillai are ineffective in the scoring areas. We need to work on this weakness.
The girls sports wing in village Kairon deserves an Astroturf. The boys in Khadoor Sahib deserve an Astroturf. Moga, Ferozepore and Batala deserve astroturfs. Jalandhar deserves at least three astroturfs and Amritsar can have one more. We have great coaches, but they should be allowed to have some years to develop a good fighting team.
According to Balbir, Jugraj’s injury, prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics proved too costly for India. He was a unique three in one player. He used to be not only an ace drag-flicker, he was a very aggressive and accurate defender and his stubborn defense against opposing team’s penalty corner shots was the best India has seen in years. He reminded me of Late Surjit Singh Randhawa. Jugraj was India’s pivotal player. He used to feed the ball directly to the forwards like a seasoned half back, at occasions when the half backs did not click. If he ever regains his form and the IHF accepts him, he can still be an asset for India.
Balbir says that India desperately needs more astroturfs and at locations where physically fit youths are naturally growing, where diet is good and weather is conducive for good breeding of youth. The girls sports wing in village Kairon deserves an Astroturf. The boys in Khadoor Sahib deserve an Astroturf. Moga, Ferozepore and Batala deserve astroturfs. Jalandhar deserves at least three astroturfs and Amritsar can have one more.
We have great coaches, but they should be allowed to have some years to develop a good fighting team. Frequent hiring and firing of coaches, as was repeatedly done by K.P.S. Gill and Jyoti Kumaran lead Indian Hockey Federation, is always going to be counterproductive for Indian Hockey. The coach needs some time to settle down and know his job.
Balbir Singh is happy in knowing that the tribal kids in Jharkhand and Orissa are starting young and doing very well in hockey. But he thinks that their enthusiasm must be supported with high growth and muscle building natural diets, otherwise they in longer run will suffer from burnouts and lack of speed and stamina. Balbir Singh also feels that the youth of Punjab can always do a better job in hockey.
Balbir Singh sadly pointed out that the real power in Indian Hockey Federation was wielded by crafty Jyoti Kumarran, the then Secretary General of the Indian Hockey Federation. Kumarran had the votes to get any one elected president of the Indian Hockey Federation and rightly or wrongly he has been calling the shots. He has taken the state of the art infrastructure for hockey to places, which were never known for excellence in hockey. The former national and international level players in who’s veins hockey flows like blood are crying for better facilities and conducive atmosphere for the game.
If India hasto find its rightful place in hockey, she will have to rise above petty regionalism practiced by Jyoti Kumaran.
Balbir is not opposed to the Premier Hockey League in India, it brings in a lot of corporate money. But he thinks that the foreign players do not help in making a truly Indian team. The Indian team must come from within, for that purpose the national level tournaments must serve as the hunting ground for talented hockey players. The foreign players, due to their brilliant performance, may end up giving edge to an undeserving team and that gives false results.
This is exactly what is happening in India today. The foreign players are scoring goals and undeserving Indian teams are winning. The press and the public are watching helplessly.
We the non resident Sikhs have a lot of resources, if we act collectively. For example the non-resident Sikhs of Bholath, Tanda and Dasuya Tehsils are loaded with money. They can pool their resources and build excellent astroturfs at Begowal, Gilgian, Bholath, Nadala, Tanda, Miani or Dasuya. There is a strong presence of Moga based Punjabis in Canada, they can pool their resources to build Astroturf hockey stadiums at places like Moga, Baghapurana or Dhudike.
The Government of India, of course, is not authorized to interfere directly in the administration of hockey, but they give a lot of money for the development of the game, they can at the least give directives to the bosses of hockey. The government should not interfere if Indian hockey is doing great. But when things are seriously going in the wrong direction, such directives can act as a deterrent against wrong
policies of the bosses of hockey.
Balbir Singh thinks that although the cost of laying an Astroturf exceeds four crores of rupees, but if a few non resident Punjabis can agree to pool their resources, they can contribute a major chunk of the money needed for installing an Astroturf in their villages and towns.
