Charanjit Singh: Leader of men who got back gold in Hockey

Chandigarh, January 27

Hockey great Charanjit Singh (1929-2022), winner of two Olympics medals, was entrusted with the biggest responsibility possible in Indian sport in 1964 — he was tasked with leading the team to snatch back the Olympics gold from Pakistan.

India had won six gold medals in the Olympics in a row from 1928 to 1956, but then came disaster in 1960 — the team lost 0-1 to Pakistan in the final. The new nation of Pakistan, carved out of India, had dethroned India at the Olympics and when they beat India in the 1962 Asian Games as well, they were rightly considered the best team in the world.

Singh was in the squad when India lost to Pakistan in the Olympics and the Asian Games. After the loses to Pakistan, earnest efforts were made to prepare for the 1964 Olympics and Singh, a strong halfback, was given the job of leading the team.

The story goes that before the team left for Tokyo, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri told the team: “See young men. If you lose the gold, people will say after Jawaharlal Nehru India is not doing well. I don’t want to hear anything like this. So in your winning lies my prestige.”

Under Singh, India started strongly in Tokyo, beating Belgium 2-0 before being held 1-1 by Germany and Spain. However, they then scored wins over Hong Kong, Malaysia, Canada and the Netherlands to reach the semifinals, where they beat Australia with a comfortable 3-1 margin. On October 23, India and Pakistan, neighbours and bitter rivals, faced each other once again in a final — and this time it was India who won, with Mohinder Lal’s goal in the 49th minute proving decisive. India had lived up to the hopes of Prime Minister Shastri, and Singh had the honour of captaining an Indian team that won an Olympics final after eight years.

Getting into team

Belonging to Mairi village of Una — then part of united Punjab — Singh was an alumnus of Col Brown Cambridge School in Dehradun, and he mastered hockey when he was a student in Lahore in pre-Independence India. Singh got to play in the Olympics after he turned 30 — getting into the team in the 1950s was very, very difficult as that was the golden era of hockey in India.

When the probables were named for the 1960 Olympics, his name was not in the list. However, his performance in the Bombay Gold Cup, Aga Khan Gold Cup and National Championship was so eye-catching that he was included in the list of the probables and a camp in Hyderabad.

There were more challenges — 10 midfielders in the Hyderabad camp were vying for only three spots. With two of them, Leslie Claudius and Keshav Dutt, being certainties, the other eight were competing for just one single spot. However, Keshav Dutt pulled out of the squad over a tussle over captaincy — Singh, thus, made into the Olympics team, along with Joe Antics.

Singh in all the matches before getting injured before the semifinals. He had his chance to play a final four years later, and this time India won.

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