A lot of critics pointed out since a lot of teams were not
taking part at the Olympics, was there any point in sending a hockey team all
the way to LA, spending a lot of money? The IHF under the new administration of
M. Hayman and Pankaj Gupta were firm in sending a team to LA and to defend the
Olympic title.
NO SELECTION TRIAL FOR DHYAN CHAND
A selection trail to select the team bound for LA was
organised in Kolkata. Unlike the previous time, Dhyan Chand was not given any
permission to take part in the selection trial. He was now part of the Punjab
Regiment and the Army sports board felt he should be an automatic choice to
play for India. Moreover, the army sports board no longer presided over IHF -
it was now down to civilians and this matter of Dhyan Chand did not create any fuss.
Dhyan Chand felt he was given a royal treatment and had no choice but to accept
the orders while his teammates from the winning squad played in the
inter-provincial tournaments for a place to play in LA.
WHAT IS HOCKEY?
One must remember, India was a good decade and a half away
from independence. Funds exclusively for sports and for teams touring abroad was
uncommon. Back then in 1932, a lot of influential Indians were busy involving
themselves in the freedom movement. While IHF was looking for funds, backing
from one of these Indians and namely Mahatma Gandhi would spark up the interest
and pave the way for receiving funds from banks or donors.
Charles Newham in his capacity as a journalist was asked by
IHF to contact Mahatma Gandhi and tell him about the hockey team and their
desire to compete at the upcoming Olympics. Mahatma was busy with his political
activities and Newham, with great difficulty managed to reach him and explain
him the situation from IHF's perspective. All he heard back from Mahatma was -
'What is hockey'?
Mission unsuccessful. a crest-fallen Newham returned back
with no success. It was left to Hayman and Pankaj Gupta to convince banks for a
loan and they finally managed to get a loan from Punjab National Bank in
Kolkata.
AROUND THE WORLD
With IHF left to themselves in arranging for the money, they
came with a lot of ideas to generate funds. One such idea was to play a lot of
games at selected centres till they reached LA via Pacific Ocean. For their
return, Pankaj Gupta came up with an idea and suggested players that few
matches will be arranged post the Olympics in the Europe continent which would
generate money to pay back the loan.
All players agreed with the idea of playing in Europe and
were prepared to forgo their daily non-playing allowances of £2 per week while
on tour in Europe. Instead of a simple return fare ticket, all players had
round-the-world tickets. Onward via Pacific and return via Atlantic.
WHEN IN TROUBLE, TURN TO BENGAL
In a repeat of 1928, Bengal was again trusted with the task
of creating a financial success out of the 1932 inter-provincial tournament.
Ten teams (Bengal, Sindh, Delhi, Gwalior, Mumbai, Rajputana, United Provinces,
Bihar & Orissa, Punjab and Railways) as against five in 1928 took part and
an exhibition match was held to satisfy the provinces of Bundelkhand and Manavadar
which Manavadar won 3-1. Punjab beat Bengal 2-0 in the finals. A further two
matches were held and a final decision was made based on these performances. Bengal
Hockey Association contributed an amount close to 21,000 INR for the Olympic
journey and expenses.
SELECTION WOES
With more teams participating and with Olympic win at stake,
each association tried to squeeze in their player. Punjab was represented
heavily with seven players while Bengal had just two players with rest coming
from either Mumbai, Railways or UP. Along with Dhyan Chand; Richard Allen,
Leslie Hammond and Eric Pinniger were the only members who had earlier
participated in the 1928 Olympics.
This 15 member squad was headed by Lal Shah Bokhari, a
player from Punjab who after partition held an important position in the
External Affairs Ministry of Pakistan government and was posted in diplomatic
roles in foreign countries. Eric Pinniger who had captained the team at the
latter stages in the previous edition was unimpressed with this decision. If
not for timely intervention from Charles Newham, Eric Pinniger would not have
travelled with the squad.
G.D Sondhi, the then honorary secretary of Indian Olympic
Association was chosen as the manager. He alongside his wife travelled
separately, stayed separately and left players on their own post Olympics in
Europe. Though, Sondhi represented well in social functions, his role as a
manager is something I would question, if I were to be present then! Luckily,
the team had Pankaj Gupta as their assistant manager.
 |
| Indian team for the 1932 Olympics, Image Courtesy - Bharatiya Hockey |
THE JOURNEY
May 14, 1932 - most of the Olympic bound players assembled
in Bhopal. In the next few days, a series of matches were held as a part of
fund-raising through gate receipts. Hockey matches were played with the local
teams at Bhopal, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai,
Kobe, Tokyo where the Indian team registered wins in all their matches.
From Yokohama (June 24th 1932) the players left for the
Olympics. A lot of Olympic passengers took the same boat (Tatsuta Maru) and the
ship resembled a miniature stadium with practice matches on the top deck had Indians
playing hockey. 100m running course, swimming pool gave enough athletes some
much needed practice during this journey.
In total, India's Olympic contingent had N.C Malik (swimming);
Sutton, Venieux and Mehr Chand (Athletics) and the hockey team represented
India out of 400 million population! The contingent disembarked in San Pedro,
California and then further 10 miles ride to Los Angeles was arranged by the
organising committee.
Olympic village made its appearance for the first time -
temporary cottages with each having two rooms with a small toilet. Community
dining hall and common bathrooms with a separate provision for women as they
were not allowed to enter this Olympic village.
HOCKEY IS NOT JUST ICE HOCKEY
A lot of Americans
had never seen field hockey before. Ice-hockey remained the only knowledge of
hockey to most Americans. Wherever little hockey was played, it was due to the presence
of Englishmen and women; mostly women players from Philadelphia. A local Los
Angeles daily wrote:
"All the colour, glamour and
pageantry of Rudyard Kipling's India might well have found its incarnation in
the personnel of the Indian hockey team, which is to represent the land of
Mahatma Gandhi.
So agile
are the members of the team that they can run the full length of the hockey
field, juggling a small wooden ball with the flat of a hockey stick. One
who knows nothing of the rigours of hockey should take a warning here. Don't
get in the line of fire on a hockey field, for the hockey ball, driven by a
forehand or a backhand, is almost as deadly and as accurate as a cannon ball.
Should
one doubt this, just let them watch the Indian players in their daily practice
on the turf of the University."
LET THE
GAMES BEGIN
In absence
of US President Herbert Hoover, the Games were officially declared open by
vice-president Charles Curtis. Indian clothing comprised of brown shoes, white
flannel trousers, a light blue blazer coat with Star of India monogram as the
crest and Punjabi turban as the headgear got a loud applause from the crowd
during the parade of the nations. Lal Shah Bokhari, captain of the hockey team
carried the flag for India - a Union Jack flag with the Star of India embossed
on it.
 |
| At the parade of the nations, Indian contingent at LA 1932 Olympics Image Courtesy - The Hindu |
THE MATCHES
On August 4 1932, India played their first match against
Japan and won it easily 11-1. Yet, they were disappointed with the fact that,
they had conceded a goal - a first for India in the Olympics. Dhyan Chand scored
4 goals.
Next up against USA, a week later and it was a goal feast.
Indians won the match 24-1 with Dhyan Chand scoring 8 goals and his brother Roop
Singh netting 10 goals. The lone goal by America was from Bodlington.
Three teams took part at the Olympics and India by a huge margin
won the gold medal and thereby defended their 1928 title. All fifteen players
who were selected took part in these two games and a happy contingent was
prepared to leave USA on a high note.
A lot of Indians watched the match and some were generous
enough to organise funds to the extent of $200 to meet the deficit of the
Olympic fund.
RETURN JOURNEY AND MORE HOCKEY
The Indian contingent visited few of the touristic sites in
California before they left for New York. During this journey, they relaxed by
bathing at some of the famous salt lakes of Salt Lake City, played hockey at Omaha
under floodlights and in Philadelphia before stopping at New York. Some more
sightseeing before they took the boat 'Mauritania' which carried them to
Southampton.
Like I had mentioned before, no interest was taken from the English
hockey authorities to field in their team to play India. Instead, German Hockey
Association offered generously to meet all the expenses on the Continent. The
Indian team had a hectic schedule and played their matches against Holland,
Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The quality of hockey was much better than
the ones played at the Olympics.
While in Prague, the hockey team played a match against a
women's team. With Hayman being the umpire, a lot of restrictions were imposed
on the Indian team and most notably the Indian team ended up playing
left-handed. Dhyan Chand was to excel here as well and a smitten young Czech girl,
a hockey enthusiast told him - 'he was an angel' and made many attempts were
made by her to kiss him post match. A shy guy that he was refused each time! This
incident was also part of the tour report written by Hayman.
From Budapest, the team left for Naples and en route they
halted at Vienna, Florence, Rome and finally the team boarded the ship from
Naples to Colombo on September 18, 1932.
They played few matches in Colombo before they left for
Chennai, then to Mumbai, Delhi and finally to Lahore where they went separate
ways on October 16. All these matches were played to repay the expenses of the
trip and they still ended up with a deficit of more than 3,000 INR - which was
taken care by Hayman.
The team in total played a total of 37 matches in this five-month
trip scored 338 goals and conceded just 34 goals. Dhyan Chand alone accounted
for 133 goals! It was time for him to go back to this home town, Jhansi where
he had series of receptions hosted by his friends and well-wishers.
END NOTE
Hockey was represented poorly at the 1932 Olympics with just
three nations taking part. If India would have not done this long journey,
would the status of hockey still remained as an Olympic sport or would it have
been scrapped by the IOC following a poor turnout?
From Indian point of view, it costed them a lot - but the
hockey fraternity internationally benefitted by this tour of India, where they
not only saw Indian winning the Olympic gold medal, they also witnessed the demonstration
of this skilful sport.
Dhyan Chand was now ranked Naik in the Indian army and was offered a lucrative civilian
job with the railways as Hayman, president of IHF was also a senior member in
the railway board. Dhyan Chand was caught in two minds and decided to stick with
the army after being assured by the Army General personally that he would be
looked after well.
In the next part of the series chronicles the events that
Dhyan Chand and the Indian hockey fraternity had to endure in their quest to
defend their Olympic title amidst the hoopla of Nazi regime in Berlin.
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