The Loggerhead between the Institutional Industrialists of Indian Hockey

Picture-:: A Loggerhead  Caricature Between The Two Institutionalised- Industrialised Entities 

The Loggerhead between the Institution  Industrialists of Indian Hockey

It was in 1965 and if I can remember the date it was December 1^st 1965 that the Border Security Force was born at India.

The Indo-Pak conflict had taken place in 1965 and it ended during the month of September. That war was fought for 21 days and India had defeated Pakistan in that war.

The 1965 War and the Kashmir :: The TWO FACE of Pakistan’s Sports when colluded with India.

What has Kashmir to do with the sports that India plays it with Pakistan ? . One might even ask what has the 1965 war got to do with the sports that India plays against Pakistan. Well- the two are the same face though actually the face ought to be different but for Pakistan the two are the same face when it boils down to India and Pakistan always sees the mirage of the 1965 war and thereafter Kashmir when it gets down to the business with India. When it is sports, for Pakistan, defeating India in any game is neutralizing their defeat against India of the 1965 war that it had lost to India and then it also acts as a catalyst for them to inspire more or much for their DREAM of Kashmir to annex it against India. If Pakistan beats India in cricket or Hockey it feels that it has not only defeated India that had taken place in 1965 and also that it has annexed Kashmir when it boils downs to it.

In games and sports, Pakistan  usually and occasionally, does not gets a chance to rub their shoulder against the Indian Army but ofcourse when it boils down to Hockey they often and in the previous days, or the years that has pased by ,  they would get a chance to rub their shoulders against the Indians who were the B.S.F men playing hockey for India and Pakistan always had a clusters of Army personnel playing for  them in Hockey. There have been a lot of Pakistani’s who were the military men who played against India right from 1956 till now and there were many from the B.S.F who represented India against Pakistan and had lost to them. That is how it was in Hockey when it was played between the two nation.

B.S.F, an Institution which fed and bred Hockey

Formed in 1965 just after the Indo-Pak war, B.S.F is a para-military force and it guards the border and halts the enemy across the border before the Army swings into action. It was Mr Ashwini Kumar who became it’s DIRECTOR GENERAL way back in the sixties. Mr Ashwini Kumar was from Punjab and he was ONE of the THREE top class graduate to have completed his graduation and one of the TOP THREE to have passed the Civil Services examination , standing in that order of merit. He was chosen none other by Mrs Indira Gandhi to control and man the B.S.F

Pic :: The Elusive Hockey stick - The Bottom Getting Flattened ,The Top Getting Pointed Tipped

Mr Ashwini Kumar was highly interested in Hockey and he formed the B.S.F Hockey team . Soon thereafter because of his proximity he soon took over the President of the I.H.F in Hockey and thus it was for the FIRST time in the annals of the Indian Hockey that an Army man or a Government Official headed the rein and the Presidentship of Indian hockey.

He as an administrator and as a Chief of B.S.F and his love and his inclination to the game, he formed a B.S.F Hockey team and within no time there were Vinod Kumar, Kulwant Singh, Ajitpal Singh, Baldev Singh, Tarsem Singh, and amongst the other who had retired from Hockey playing for Punjab but still associated in Hockey, were taken into the rolls of Hockey. This is where the industrialization of Hockey took place in India.

Till then there were the Railways and the Services which inducted and recruited the Hockey players into their fold but B.S.F it was which went a few step ahead and recruited even them who had retired from the game but were in one or the other manner associated with  Hockey. It is from here that the Indian Hockey team started getting players who were NOT fit enough to represent India in Hockey but were taken into the team due to the influence and it was the B.S.F players who were the most luckiest one’s to get that nod.

Most of the B.S.F players representing their side and playing for the B.S.F were from Punjab. They would be either the Punjabis or the Sardarji’s and it became such that ONE of the B.S.F player who really would be good would get into the team and with him there would be another two or three that would get into the side.

To cite an example, Ajitpal Singh who led India in the 1971 World Cup was definitely a very good hockey player to be their in the side to play for India but OFCOURSE Vinod Kumar and Kulwant Singh were not of that class or caliber, but to get the nod and the BLESSINGS from the B.S.F whose CEO was the SUPREMO of the I.H.F , some players who were not fit enough to be included into the Indian side would get that nod. That would shackle and ramble the Indian team in the long run.

I shall start from the 1968 Olympics. This was the FIRST Olympic  team that was selected with Mr Ashwini Kumar in a very strong and roaring position in the B.S.F. In that team there were THREE Balbir Singh playing. That three was reduced from five as in the 1966 Asian Games where India won the Hockey Gold for the first time in the Asian level, there were FIVE Balbir Singh playing for India. Out of the three as mentioned, ONE of them, Balbir Singh Khullar who was serving in the Punjab Police was selected because he was from Police. HE DID NOT HAVE THE REQUISITE CAPACITY TO REPRESENT THE INDIAN HOCKEY TEAM, YET HE GOT THE NOD.

If there was ONE good Sardarji, and if he found a place in the squad, it would be that , THAT one will the cause and the reason for some other Sardarji to get the nod. Similarly Tarsem Singh who was the member of that 1968 Olympic Squad was not at all any PATCH to Shahid Noor who was perhaps the BEST-INSIDE-LEFT in the World that was playing Hockey. His FAULT was that HE DID NOT POSSESS A JOB. He was playing for Mohun Bagan and that was his only job. As he was not playing for either Punjab Police or B.S.F he was not selected and Tarsem Singh got into the squad. The REASON cited was as Shahid Noor was NOT working with any organization, and Tarsem was, Tarsem Singh by virtue of being an Olympian then, if he was selected in the Indian Olympic Hockey team ,  who was already playing  with Punjab Police as a player but NOT on the roll , it would have benefitted Tarsem and his family if he represented India as that would have made him a permanent personnel of Punjab Police in their roll. That was the reason he was included in the squad and when he came back with a BRONZE, that Bronze and Mr Ashwini Kumar helped him to get into the B.S.F. The SUFFERER in terms of the MOST was Indian Hockey and Shahid Noor. Shahid Noor and a kind of a player that he was , the Pakistani were surprised that he was not in the Indian side. Similarly a player by the name of Inder Singh just was not fit enough to be in the squad but he got that nod because he was from Punjab and the B.S.F and the Punjab Police were interested in him.

Except for a few Sardarji that played Hockey for India from 1966, some of the  names Like Balbir Singh Junior who scored that magical goal in 1-0 victory over Pakistan in the 1966 Hockey Finals, Harbinder Singh, Ajit Pal Singh, Harmik Singh, the Late  Mohinder Singh, who expired in 1976, Baldev Singh, Surjit Singh, Pargat Singh,  Varinder Singh, Hardeep Singh, Harcharran Singh, Pritipal Singh, Gurbux Singh, Colonel Balbir Singh, Harjinder Singh Chimni, barring these names,  BELIEVE me none of the Sardarji who represented India in the Hockey between 1966 to 1984 were any GOOD or better to play for India. There were many NON-SARDRJI who were far and far better and most outstanding that were playing Hockey  in India . From Bhopal itself we had Mehboob Khan, Shahid Noor, Inam-Ur-Rehman, Zahid Noor, Salim Abbasi, Aslam Sher Khan, to name a few but except selecting them to warm the bench none of them could play in the first eleven for India on a regular basis and that is where the Pakistani’s were POMMELLING and POUNDING India.

India’s Nighmare :: Rejecting the BEST and Playing the MEDIOCRE

India’s nightmare started from the 1966 Asian games finals. We won OFCOURSE we did, but that was because on that day Shankar Laxman for the SECOND TIME took a rasp on the MOUTH of Brigadier Atif when a penalty corner that he hit , struck the stick of a  Indian defender and it almost flew into the goal but Shankar Laxman flung his body parallel to the rising  ball and put his mouth in front of the ball which prevented the ball entering the net. This act he did it in 1964 also where India somehow was able to defeat Pakistan by 1-0 when he led India.

 SHANKAR LAXMAN IS THE ONLY HOCKEY PLAYER IN INDIA IN THE ANNALS OF INDIAN HOCKEY WHO WON BOTH THE OLYMPICS AND THE ASIAN GAMES TITLE AS A CAPTAIN OF THE INDIAN HOCKEY TEAM.

Fifty Five  Sardarji’s Three Punjabis, Total of 58 of them played for India from 1966 to 1975

It would surprise many and many would not believe it.Yet it is a fact. From 1966 when we for the FIRST time beat Pakistan in the Finals of the 1966 Asian games to win that GOLD, from that hockey finals to the World Cup winning moment in 1975, we had as many as 55 Sardarji’s (FIFTY-FIVE) and THREE Punjabis , a total of 58,  playing Hockey and representing India in the various tournaments. 

BELIEVE ME EXCEPT FOR FIFTEEN AND MAYBE ONE OR TWO MORE SARDARJI’S AND EXCEPT FOR ONE PUNJABI- NONE DID HAVE ANY QUALITIES TO PLAY AND REPRESENT INDIA IN ANY INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENTS.

 However since the Punjab state had the B.S.F and the Punjab Police playing for them as Hockey players,  and if they were not from these two teams but if they were from Punjab , and , either a Punjabi or a Sardarji playing for the Services or the Railways especially the Northern Railways, you could take it for granted that he would find a place in the Indian squad with a little bit of lick and luck .

I shall for the benefit of the readers put down here the total number of the Sardarji’s and the non-Sardarji’s whom we call them as Punjabi’s that represented India in the Hockey at the Olympics, Asian Games and the World Cup . The number is here under-:

Serial Number	Year	Event	Total Number Of Sardar	Total Number of Punjabis		Grand Total
1	1968	Mexico Olympics	12	1		13
2	1970	Asian games	10	1		11
3	1971	World Cup	5	1		6
4	1972	Olympics Munich	7	0		7
5	1973	World Cup	6	0		6
6	1974	Asian games	8	0		8
7	1975	World Cup	7	1		8
						59

 

The grand total ought to be 58 but the typographical error would reflect it to be 59. 

Let me be very frank.The Goalkeeper of the 1975  World Cup winning Indian Hockey team had Ashok Dewan playing for India. He was a Punjabi from Delhi. How was he selected in the squad and how was he preferred over Manuel Fredricks who played for India in the 1972 Olympics was a , I would say a ALFRED HITCHCOCK thriller or the MYSTERY of Bermuda Triangle. Strange- really one feels strange to find that Samar Mukherjee of Mohun Bagan and Bengal being dropped from the Indian National Hockey team of Munich in 1972 and his place went to Charles Cornilius who was shade behind Samar Mukherjee at the goal or even Manuel Fredricks who guarded the Indian goal till Pakistan beat us by 2-0 in the semis at Munich.

It was so strange to see Shahid Noor not making the Indian team to Mexico in 1968 and his place going to Tarsem Singh who was NO patch on Shahid Noor. It was very strange to see Inam-Ur-Rehman warming the bench for the entire tourney at Mexico where the Indian team was displaying so mediocre Hockey at that games and very ordinary players playing in that games for India. Some more strange was the fact that Rajwinder Singh from nowhere was selected to play for India in the 1971 World Cup Hockey at Barcelona. After that tourney one did not get to see him at all playing Hockey for India.

In 1971 for the First world Cup Hockey it was a surprise to see that the I.H.F did not even bother to sort out the matter with either Inam-Ur-Rehman and Balbir Singh Junior and select them to play for India in the First World Cup Hockey . It was pathethic to see Surjit Singh, and Balbir Singh as well as Inam-Ur-Rehman not assisting the Indian team to Munich at the Olympics. In the 1971 World Cup Hockey inspite of having Shahid Noor as an Inside Left , and far better than M.P. Ganesh, as a player, he was completely sidelined to play for India in the pretext that- BHAI WHO HOCKEY KYA KHELEGA. USKA BAAP TOH BHOPAL KAY RASTE PAR SAMOSA BECHHTA HAI which means that  WHAT IS THE HOCKEY WILL HE PLAY FOR INDIA. HIS FATHER SELLS SAMOSAS ON THE STREET OF BHOPAL.

In the 1972 World Cup it was that Shahid Noor was fielded only for 15 minutes in the Bronze Medal play off against Kenya for India. India was trailing by 0-1 till that time. Shahid Noor in a span of FIFTEEN minutes showed WHAT MASALA DID THE BHOPLAI SAMOSA CONTAIN. Single handedly in a span of fifteen minutes, he completely produced a kind of a display which were not seen in the arena of Hockey from 1964 to 1971 till then. He got the equalizer against Kenya and then he laid a world class epical pass for Ashok Kumar to score the winner against India. Thereafter looking at the politics of Indian Hockey he said good-bye to Indian Hockey He breathed his last when he was 59 years of age while serving in the Indian-Airlines.

Pakistan Hockey Team and it’s reaction after finding Shahid Noor was not playing against them.

Pakistan team since the 1964 Olympics, always had a FRAUD to sell to India. Ever since the year 1964 when they had lost to the Indian team in the finals by 1-0, they always sold a kind of a FRAUD to the Indian side before meeting India. This had happened in the 1966 Asian Games as well when the Pakistani team just before their finals against India gave a very rubbish display .Pakistan just had evolved a theory. That was before meeting India, just  play a bad , a very BAD game before meeting India so that India  feels that the Pakistani team is not what it appears.

However when it boiled to play India, in whatever  it might have been, against India, after such a poor display, in the earlier match, it gave Indian many concerns about the wrong ideas and the belief about the previous day’s play. R their previous match.

However the scenario at the First world Cup was a cropper to them. They had played a 2-2 draw against Spain , and had lost to Holland by 2-3. Now the situation was just that if Holland only had to draw their game against Japan, they would qualify for the semis to meet India. Japan surprisingly beat Holland by 1-0 and that made Pakistan to move into the semis.

The entire Pakistani team visited and met the Japanese team , and gifted them their Hockey stick.Till that moment India did not play Shahid Noor at all. M.P.Ganesh was regularly fielded in all the match for India ill then. Pakistan were of the opinion that India will like a SURPRISE which they always would do before meeting India, would find India doing that , fielding Shahid Noor against them.

This was the player that  Pakistan FEARED the most. For all that they had  THEY DID NOT HAVE ONE LIKE SHAHID NOOR.The Pakistani’s were very frightened and skeptical thinking all about Shahid Noor . When they entered the field for their game against India, the first they did was to look at the score board.They found that Shahid Noor was and his name did not figure even in the list of reserves against Pakistan. SO GLAD AND  SO HAPPY WERE THE PAKISTANIS, THAT THE FIRST THEY DID WAS TO DISTRIBUTE SWEETS. Some of them were dancing the BHANGRA before the game started. When questioned by many of them who were there to cover the match- they and their reply was :: WE ARE CELEBRATING OUR VICTORY.

When asked what were they up to, they started saying that WITHOUT EVEN ENTERING THE FIELD THEY HAVE BEATEN INDIA AS INDIA WAS NOT PLAYING SHAHID NOOR. Next they ordered their local Manager to extend their hotel stay till the finals because they knew that they would play the finals against Spain . That was their mind set.

That is what happened. India lost to Pakistan by 1-2 in the semis and Pakistan through a penalty stroke taken by Akhtar Rasool, beat Spain by 1-0 I the finals. This is how the Indians always had selected their team and served the VICTORY on a PLATTER to the opponents.

I have written a article titled -:

Yehi Who Jagah Hai Yehi Who Fizaye ………The Greatest Ever Indian Hockey XI ...............

 

Here I have described all about the GREATEST ever Indian Hockey team. I have described about Shahid Noor as a Hockey player and PLEASE read that the readers I REQUEST.

The Formation Of Indian Airlines Team in 1968 :: The “ FIRST ” Hockey Team Without A Sardarji To Win A National title

The rein by the B.S.F and Mr Ashwini Kumar saw many not likeable incident in the field of Indian Hockey.It was NOT that Mr Ashwini Kumar was doing that but under his umbrella and the garb that he had, the notorious one’s, the SELECTORS and the Coaches, basically those who mostly were from the Punjab were doing that. They would select three or four outstanding Sardarji’s but would push in another three or four as the situation would arise who would be below or just the average to play alongside, it could be to the fact that those would keep on warming the bench. One such glaring example was Hardyal Singh who was a MERE ordinary hockey player NOT-WORTH enough to even represent Punjab, but he went all the way to find a place in the Olympic as well as the Asian Games team and winning the medal despite NOT being fielded even for a single game.

A player who did not even play ONE of those many games on the field while winning a medal- how can he ever guage and smell the moves and take the shape to neutralize those kind of moves as a coach and instruct his boy's doing it . What learning experience would he possess?. One was SURPRISED when he was selected to Coach the Junior Indian Hockey team in 1981 against the visiting Pakistan hockey Team .No doubt India even and inspite of processing and possessing  so many a  good players did not win that series against the Pakistani team.

It was in 1968 when Inam-Ur-Rehman who was so shabbily treated in the 1968 Olympics when he was included in the side and was NOT played even a single game in Mexico,  came back and formed a NON-PUNJABI-SARDARJI All India Indian Airlines Hockey Team. That team had Misbah at the goal, Monappa as their deep defender, Aslam Sher Khan in the deep defence, Perumal Krishnamurthy at the Left Back, Mehboob Khan at the Cente Half, Shahid Noor and Inam at the upfront.

That team CUT the other’s in the All India Jawaharlal Nehru Cup and reached the finals where they played TWO days a UP-AND-DOWN- PENDULUM-SWINGING game , to share the Cup with and against Punjab Police led by Harmeek Singh and that team had as many as FIVE OLYMPIANS.

That Indian Airlines team had and is the FIRST team in the history of India to win a NATIONAL RANKING HOCKEY TITLE in India withot fielding even a SINGLE Punjabi or even a Sardarji after Independence.

After lifting the Cup and when the after Final’s ceremony wee over, Inam in a HIGH VOLTAGE VOICE filled with all the BHOPALI COUPLET  VOMITTED on every Hockey administrators who were on that day watching the finals between these two teams.

Bhopal for everything is and was famous for “ ZARDA ” , “ PURDAH ” , “ NA-MARDA ” and “ GARDA ” which means Bhopal has always been famous for Zarda Paan masala, the Dress that women folks of Bhopal don while moving outside and out of their home or house, the EUNUNCH and the DUST that roars and soars up at Bhopal.  Inam on that day used every thing of the one’s that I have mentioned here on the Hockey administrators . He really was speaking in a spirited manner about the DESTRUCTIONS that those were causing to the careers and the life of the Hockey players and Indian Hockey.

He was VERY LOUD on his voice then which on that day was beating all the SOUND TRACK of the HIS-MASTER'S VOICE, an organisation which was producing and selling the RPM of the 45 variety, the other varieties of the Hindi Films Songs, and he was pointing his fingers on the Punjabis and the Sardarji's that were present on that day to have watched the games, about the MUSLIMS and the NON- SARDARJI'S or the Punjabis who had played the game for Indian Airlines to and for the Airlines to have won that Trophy, which was  a GLAMOUR of Hockey in terms of the tournament held during those days.

In fact when K.D.Singh Babu was the coach of the Indian Hockey team for the Munich Olympics, in 1972, he was very reluctant to go to Munich after the Indian team was announced and the list of the players that were handed to him. He simply wanted Balbir Singh Senior of the Northern Railways, Inam-Ur-Rehman, Samar Mukherjee,  and Surjit Singh to be picked and selected. That would have made a GREAT Indian team with the likes of Harbinder, Ashok Kumar, B.P.Govinda at the forward line, Ajitpal Singh and Harmik Singh at the half, Micheal Kindo and Aslam Sher Khan  at the deep defense .With that many and that kind of players India definitely would have won that Gold at Munich..

He also requested the I.H.F to sit and resolve their differences with these players. The reason why Balbir Singh Junior was not attending any camps at India because  HE WANTED THE CAPTAINSHIP OF THE INDIAN HOCKEY TEAM STRAIGHT AFTER THE 1968 OLYMPICS as he was the Senior most in the team by then. But the B.S.F had Ajitpal Singh and the Punjab Police had Harmik Singh with them .It was Ajitpal Singh in 1971 for the First ever World Cup Hockey to lead India and then it was Harmik Singh who was the Captain of the Indian Hockey team for the 1972 Munich Olympics. Balbir Singh was the GREATEST  mercurial Hockey player then in the WORLD of HOCKEY and he had NO-PEERS then in the game. But then INDIA  HAD ALWAYS BEEN A MASTER OF DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOCKEY AND THE GAME OF HOCKEY THAT THE PLAYERS PLAYED.

The tend had started from the days of Ali Ishtiaque Hassan Dara and Roop Singh getting minced in terms of anything that was GREAT for them in Hockey and the GREAT Zafar Ali as well who played Hockey for India. Luckily another Zafar switched over to Pakistan and he was saved . But then that is what is Indian hockey all about to write about the destruction it has caused to many, many, and many of the Hockey players and stars who were the SHINING example of DIAMONDS but were reduced to the GLASS-PIECE lying on the roads by the Indian Hockey administrators. Shahid Noor, Balbir Singh Junior and Inam-Ur-Rehman are a few names that I have used them because they are all medallions of International Hockey. There are many and plenty ......... many, and many of them . 

Well coming to the HEADLINE of this article and with the B.S.F players playing for Indian Hockey team, whenever the Pakistani Hockey team defeated India with the B.S.F Players playing for India, it would for PAKISTAN mean.......

REVENGE of the 1965 war and AVENGE of KASHMIR 

Well this article will continue. I pen down here itself for the day……….

Well , that is it and That sums it all.

Regards and Thanks

Pics

Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in    B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing .

Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

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