Cricketics Posted April 1, 2008 Posted April 1, 2008 perhapz? or yes?? threet imes Olympic Gold medalist for India. considered as Don Bradman of Hockey.. Major Dhyan Chand Singh (August 29, 1905 – December 3, 1979) was a former Indian hockey player and is regarded as the greatest ever hockey player of all times. He was part of the Gold winning Indian team in three Olympic Games (1928 Amsterdam , 1932 Los Angeles, 1936 Berlin). He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1956. He got the title "Chand" or (moon) from his first coach, Pankaj Gupta, who had predicted that he would one day shine like a chand or moon. Dhyan Chand was affectionately called Dadda. Even today Dhyan Chand is to hockey what Bradman is to cricket, Mohammed Ali to boxing and Pele to football — the unchallenged masters of their sport and the only Indian sportsperson who can lay claim to such an honour read more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyan_Chand
cochise Posted April 2, 2008 Posted April 2, 2008 What an ABSOLUTE LEGEND this guy was! Some quotes from the article: He was part of the Gold winning Indian team in three Olympic Games (1928 Amsterdam , 1932 Los Angeles, 1936 Berlin). During a 1935 tour of New Zealand and Australia, he scored 201 goals out of the team's tally of 584 in 43 matches. Don Bradman and Dhyan Chand once came face to face at Adelaide in 1935, when the Indian hockey team was in Australia. After watching Dhyan Chand in action, Don Bradman remarked "He scores goals like runs in cricket". On the field he was named the "Wizard of Hockey" for he exerted complete control on the ball. It appeared that the ball used to stick to his hockey stick while playing. So great was the magic of Dhyan Chand that the Tokyo officials broke his hockey stick to search for a magnet inside, and tried to console themselves saying he had added some sort of glue. On one occasion, a lady from the audience asked Dhyan Chand to play with her walking stick instead. He scored goals even with them! An artist in Vienna depicted him as having eight arms. They broke his stick in Holland to check if there was a magnet inside; in Japan they decided it was glue; in Germany, Adolf Hitler even wanted to buy it. Oh man! How I would love to see some footage of this guy. His stickwork must have been amazing. Hockey stickwork is a real work of art...a dying one unfortunately because of Astroturf...we may never see his like again.
Cricketics Posted April 2, 2008 Author Posted April 2, 2008 Oh man! How I would love to see some footage of this guy. His stickwork must have been amazing. Hockey stickwork is a real work of art...a dying one unfortunately because of Astroturf...we may never see his like again. yes.. i would love to see a footage of his play too.. My Grandfather used tell me a lot about his play.. that he was just a pure legend a magician with the stick. U ask for a miricle and he would present it to you..
veer Posted April 2, 2008 Posted April 2, 2008 yeahhh I had a whole lesson in school on him.. in hinidi text book.. it was something like 'jadugar dhyanchand' ..
THX_1138 Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 do we have any occassion in india marking his feats? maybe a memorial or even a scholarship in his name?
THX_1138 Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 my great grandfather had met dhyanchand and supposedly received an autographed hockey stick when he stayed at my great grandfather's hotel in agra, uttar pradesh... whereabouts of this sovereign are a family mystery. supposedly his mistress took it...
Tapioca Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 do we have any occassion in india marking his feats? maybe a memorial or even a scholarship in his name? His birthday is celebrated (!?) as National Sports Day. The Arjuna awards and the rest (Khel Ratna) etc are given on this day. The Wikipedia article needs a major cleanup, though. Very badly written.
THX_1138 Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 yes.. i would love to see a footage of his play too.. My Grandfather used tell me a lot about his play.. that he was just a pure legend a magician with the stick. U ask for a miricle and he would present it to you.. i believe his time was before that of sports broadcast in india. heck, the last olympics he ever played in berlin were the first where a live broadcast was made when hitler stood before giant nazi banner and proclaimed the superiority of the aryan race since they could broadcast live television. evidentally little did he know that his superior aryan race would be no match for a good ole russian winter. p.s. all this hyperbole of hitler praising him or wanting to purchase his stick is just that: hyperbole. while india did rout german 3-1 in the final to take the gold, there is no credible record of hitler, the fuhrer of a movement that believed that your skin tone pretty much determined if you deserved to live or not, would swallow the humility pill and congratulate a dimunitive brown skinned oaf... nonetheless, that lesson in humility would have not been received well in the annals of the reichstag.
umpire Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 >considered as Don Bradman of Hockey wrong it should be Don Bradman is considered Dhyanchand of Hockey.
mhr123 Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I remember we used to have a nice story book in our school syllabus abt Dhayan chand
Tapioca Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 i believe his time was before that of sports broadcast in india. heck, the last olympics he ever played in berlin were the first where a live broadcast was made when hitler stood before giant nazi banner and proclaimed the superiority of the aryan race since they could broadcast live television. Hitler had Leni Reifenstahl make a long documentary called Olympia on the 1936 Olympics. Thanks to that, a few minutes the Indian hockey team is available on film. Both the clippings of Dhyan Chand and the complete Olympia are available in the youtube. (I can't find the link myself because I am at work and it is blocked here)
Cricketics Posted April 4, 2008 Author Posted April 4, 2008 Top Video topiaca good one.. btw u embed and its notw orking like that.. so for others.. just click on the link and watch in utube itself.. thanks for the video tapiaca
Tapioca Posted April 4, 2008 Posted April 4, 2008 Thanks cricketics. Can a mod please fix that. The link is video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2532259642413640598 with an http in front.
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