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Hockey was India’s national sport and passion till cricket took over in the 1980s. Hockey stars were chased by fans and there was an all-round craze for the sport in the country.
Ashok Kumar, a hero of India’s 1975 World Cup win, and son of the legendary Major Dhyan Chand, still recalls the salad days of hockey. ‘Hockey was a symbol of nationalism those days. I remember how Raj Kapoor organized a friendly match between our team and Bollywood team and whole film fraternity was there in Wankhede stadium to watch that [sic],’ said Kumar.
But the dip in the popularity of the sport began after the 1968 Mexico Olympics. India finished with a bronze medal and there was a general sense that there is a downward turn being experienced in the sport. The story goes that the players had to cover their faces in shame because they came back with something less than gold.
By 1975, the team was no longer a force to be reckoned with and hockey had lost its appeal to the public. But it was not just poor returns on the field, off the field too, the administration at the then IHF was in complete shambles. Despite these unfortunate events, India still managed to claim bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Just a year before the Munich Games, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) started the World Cup in 1971. The inaugural edition was won by Pakistan. In the second edition
in 1973, India finished runner-up, losing to The Netherlands in the final. Pakistan, India’s arch-rivals were soaring high around the same time and they won the Asian Games gold at Bangkok in 1970 and at Tehran in 1974. So, when the 1975 World Cup in Malaysia was fast approaching, Indian hockey was at crossroads.
But there was a big chance that India could have missed the World Cup because of politics in the IHF. As always, the IHF was faction-ridden and the administration of the sport had collapsed completely. Looking at the mess, the IOA took over the administration of hockey on its own.
Then in December 1974, the Indian government stepped in and fresh elections were held in the IHF under the supervision of an ombudsman. Despite the result being declared fair, the
IOA did not budge and continued to manage hockey in the country. This resulted in a massive delay in preparing the Indian team for the 1975 World Cup.
A training camp was expected to be held, but got delayed, and as a result, there was a huge question mark over Indian team’s participation in the World Cup. Then things took a turn for the positive, thanks to Giani Zail Singh, future Indian president and then Punjab chief minister.
He ordered the Punjab government to conduct the training camp completely at the expense of the state. As a result, a training camp was staged at Panjab University in Chandigarh. The Punjab government took care of the three-month-long camp providing the players meals, practice and lodging facilities, alongside allowances for their daily sustenance.
But the battle for running the sport was still very much in full flight. The IHF was involved in a dogfight with the IOA. Till a fortnight before the team’s first match in the World Cup,
there was no clearance for their departure. There was no clarity on whether the Indian team would actually participate in the tournament. The problem was that the IHF wanted to send the team under its aegis, whereas the IOA wanted the side to play under their name. The government was a mute spectator as this fight played out. The players could only watch meekly.
It was only when the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports stepped in that the matter was resolved. The selected players had taken matters into their own hands and sent a letter to the ministry and to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, threatening to quit the sport for good, unless the matter was resolved and clearance to participate was given. The Hindu published a copy of the letter which read:
We are thoroughly disgusted with the dirty politics and fight for power in high level sports bodies, including the IHF, which has ruined the national sport. […]
We are left with no alternatives. After all, we are also human beings and all this dirty politics and uncertainty do affect our morale and game. We have been practising here for more than seven hours a day for the last 3 months and have spared no efforts to try and bring back the last glory. Let the power-hungry officials first fight out among themselves before a team is sent out for any competition.
The letter made its impact instantly, as the players were given clearance and, in just two days, India, led by Ajitpal Singh, left for the World Cup. The side travelled to Singapore, where
they were meant to play a few warm-up games. The side then travelled to Malaysia for the World Cup. India was drawn in Pool B of the tournament alongside West Germany, Australia, England, Argentina and Ghana. Pakistan was in Pool A with Malaysia, Spain, New Zealand, Poland and The Netherlands.
The moment the side checked into the hotel; the Indian side felt a strange affinity to the World Cup trophy, which was displayed with much fanfare in the lobby of the hotel.
India’s players describe a feeling of being connected to the trophy from the very first day. The squad chosen for the World Cup included eight players who had faced defeat in the
1973 World Cup final at the hands of The Netherlands. The tournament was to be played at the Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, which was primarily a football stadium, but was being used for hockey this time.
India’s tournament started on 2 March 1975 with a game against England. India did not have much trouble in putting it past the Englishmen. Former captain Victor John Philips scored a goal in the thirteenth minute to put India in the lead.
England pulled one back through James Neale in the twenty first minute. The game was hanging in the balance till Philips pulled India ahead with a goal in the twenty-seventh minute. India’s campaign had gotten off to a fine start.
The next game was against Australia on 5 March. India once again went into the lead, thanks to a brilliant Govinda goal in the third minute, but Australia levelled with a twelfth minute goal through James Irvine. For the rest of the game, both sides played tough hockey, but could not breach each other’s defences. In the end, the match drew 1-1.
Ghana was India’s next opponent. This was a goal fest as India pumped seven goals and demolished the African side. Sardar Surjit Singh Randhawa (third minute), Govinda (ninth minute) and Aslam Sher Khan (eleventh minute) led the way initially. Then it was Mohinder Singh’s turn to score three back-to-back goals in the forty-fourth, fifty-sixth and fifty-ninth minute. In between, Ashok Kumar made matters worse for the African team with a forty-seventh-minute goal. India had blanked out Ghana 7-0 in what was total domination.
Trouble mounted for India when they went down unexpectedly at the hands of Argentina, 1-2. On 9 March 1975, India went into lead with Harcharan Singh’s twenty-first-minute effort, but Argentina stormed back with goals in the twenty-eighth minute through Flavio de Giacomi and then sealed the deal with a thirty-fourth-minute goal by Ernesto Barreiros.
India’s final league match was against West Germany on 10 March. Harcharan (twenty-first minute), Mohinder (thirty seventh minute) and Shivaji Pawar (fifty-sixth minute) scored goals to put India in an impregnable position. Despite a pull back by Fritz Schmidt in the twenty-seventh minute, India managed to win in style, 3-1.
India ended the league stage by topping Pool B with three wins from five games alongside one loss and one draw. India finished on seven points and so did West Germany. But India had a better goal difference and hence, finished at the top of the table.
In Pool A, Pakistan finished at the top with three wins from five games to finish with eight points, whereas host Malaysia finished second with six points from five games. As a result,
Pakistan played West Germany in the first semi-final, whereas Malaysia went head-to-head with India in the second. The Malaysia vs India semi-final clash was akin to a dog fight. Both sides fought constantly for supremacy only to be quelled by the other. It was almost a precursor to the mega contest between boxing legend Muhammad Ali and Joe Bugner, which was staged at the same Merdeka Stadium, four months after the Hockey World Cup.
Malaysia took a 2-1 lead thanks to efforts by Poon Fook Loke in the thirty-second minute and N. Shanmuganathan in the forty-second minute. For India, the lone goal came from Pawar in the fortieth minute. India was in a desperate situation as they trailed Malaysia. The dream was about to be shattered yet again!
Right then, India’s post-Independence hero Balbir Sr, member of the 1948 London Games, 1952 Helsinki Olympics and 1956 Melbourne Games squad came into frame. Balbir Sr is a hero in hockey, having played a key role in winning golds at three Games and in Melbourne, where he had led from the front as the captain. In Kuala Lumpur in 1975, he was both chief coach and manager. When Surjit Singh missed an opportunity to beat Malaysia’s goalkeeper Khairuddin Zainal in a penalty corner attempt, Balbir Sr lost his cool.
Watching the reaction was a young 21-year-old boy called Aslam Sher Khan, who had been warming the bench till then. There was an angry discussion between Balbir Sr and assistant coach Gurcharan Singh Bodhi, centred around Khan, who later went on to become a Member of Parliament.
Khan had been upset about not playing in all the league matches and had made his opinion clear to Balbir Sr.
“Our manager Balbir Singh Senior was a very genuine person and when I told him about my anger on missing out earlier, he said that he understood my problem and will do something. In the semi-final, I sat holding my anger before I heard some angry words exchanged
between Balbir sir and coach Bodhi and I knew it was about me. […] The moment I entered the field, all the anger inside me vanished,” recalled Khan.
Khan was pressed in to replace full-back Michael Kindo with seven minutes remaining in the contest. Balbir Sr animatedly held Khan’s face in his hands. ‘Ja beta, ab tera khuda hi bharat ko bacha sakta hai (Go son, now only your Allah can save India),’ said Balbir Sr to Khan.
Khan almost did not play the World Cup. He had opted to appear for his exams in Bhopal and had to miss the first month of the Indian team’s camp in Chandigarh. This did not go well with a lot of people.
“I had requested the then IOA president Raja Bhalendra Singh to exempt me from the initial duration of the camp as I wanted to appear for my college exams. I guess this decision did not go down well with some of my teammates and I believe that was where the first thoughts of not giving me a chance in the World Cup arose,” said Khan.
The moment Khan entered the field in the semi-final, noted commentator Jasdev Singh announced on radio: ‘Ab Bharat ne Aslam Sher Khan ko maidaan par utara hai aur lagta hai woh Bharat ka bhagya ban kar aye hain (India has brought on Khan to change its fortunes).
Khan’s father, Ahmed Sher Khan, had been a member of the famous 1936 Berlin Olympic gold medal-winning squad.
So, hockey was in his blood. He made an immediate impact by converting the penalty corner, which brought the match on level pegging at 2-2. Almost as a reflex action, Khan kissed the religious chain (taweez) given to him by his mother, Ahmedi Begum, before he took the penalty corner. Khan equalized through a penalty corner, as he breached the defense of Malaysian goalkeeper and their defender Brian Santa Maria in the sixty-fifth minute.
The equalizer triggered celebration in the Indian camp, but the fans of the side were quiet. With a large expat population in Malaysia, there was apparently a diktat that they should not cheer for India and the crowd went silent when the scores were equalized. The match went into extra-time when Harcharan Singh converted a winning goal to seal a coveted spot in the final of the World Cup.
Pakistan had already made it through with a 5-1 demolition of West Germany in the first semi-final. Recalling those final moments of the match Khan said: “I heard the commentary of the semi-final after some years and those were the exact thoughts in my mind at that time.
I was only thinking that I can change the fortunes of my country and that’s exactly what happened. Every time I remember those moments, I remember the words of Jasdev Singh. […] The first thing I heard was Ajitpal and Surjit patting my back along with Ashok Kumar and Govinda rushing towards me. ‘Bacha liya yar (you saved the team)’, they would say. After we won the semi-final, Balbir sir told me to go to dressing room window and wave to the waiting fans.”
India made it through to the final and a national holiday was declared in the country on 15 March 1975. India was drawn to play arch-rivals Pakistan in the final. Just hours before the final, Balbir Sr joined Khan to visit the mosque for Friday prayers. That almost instilled belief in Khan before the final. He also believed that it impacted the Pakistan side in the final!
‘Beta, I’ll also offer namaz with you’, Balbir Sr had told Khan. “It was our strength that Allah, Waheguru, Bhagwan everybody came together for us. We went to the mosque,
[Balbir] was wearing a red turban[…] It had an effect on the Pakistan team. Their great hockey player Abdul Rashid Jr turned to his teammates and said, ‘Now, it’s tough for
Pakistan to win.’ Everybody asked, ‘Why?’ Abdul said, ‘Ab jab sardar pehli baar namaz padenge, toh naturally allah unki pehle sunenge (When a Sikh will offer namaz for the first time, god will listen to his prayers first).
That was the impact of Balbir Sr on Indian hockey.
The members of the 1975 World Cup side remember just how keen he was to build a feeling of being one within the side. As a manager, he wanted to put together a united Indian
team, with the strength of all religions put together. He worked on that during the training camp at Chandigarh itself. He built a prayer room in the Chandigarh hostel for all religions.
“When we were stepping on the field somebody was from Punjab, someone from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bhopal… Balbir still had to face that thing in Kuala Lumpur once, when I was out of the team,” he said.
Back on the field for the final, Pakistan made the first move through Muhammad Zahid in the seventeenth minute. India levelled the score through Surjit’s penalty corner. The winning goal came from Ashok Kumar through a corner by Harcharan. Khan had a role to play in the winning goal as well as the shot deflected by Philips before Kumar converted the score.
Pakistan immediately protested, but umpire G. Vijayanathan awarded the goal to India. Commentator Jasdev Singh announced for millions of Indians tuned in on radio rather loudly. ‘Bharat vishwa hockey champion hai (India is world hockey champion),’ said Jasdev in a tone that is still remembered by fans of that day!
Khan remembers the jubilation of the team: ‘I wept for hours at the hotel lobby before the semi-final. When we won the match, I was hugged by waiting fans at the same lobby.’
The Indian team returned to Madras with the trophy. They had to soon move to New Delhi to attend a special celebration being hosted by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. At the reception, the players were feted like never before, a marked contrast to what they had experienced before departing. But there was a hurdle at Customs before their arrival in New Delhi. The side had been issued a Customs bill of 60,000 for the items they had gathered during their Malaysian and Singaporean sojourn.
IHF President M.A. Ramaswamy had to step in to save the day.
That title remains the only triumph by India in World Cup hockey. But sadly, more than four decades on, there is little to no knowledge of how seminal a moment it was! Kumar, the hero
who scored the winning goal, lamented the lack of celebration of that priceless moment. ‘We talk about nationalism and what is biggest example of nationalism than bringing laurels for the country. That win brought smiles on the faces of every citizen of this country across caste, religion, status, gender,’ he told PTI Bhasha.
Another World Cupper, Ashok Diwan, is saddened that the glorious day in Indian hockey has been forgotten. ‘Naturally, we feel bad that only we team members and hockey fraternity
remember this historic day. New generation must be told about that win and feel proud of it,’ he said. ‘That was our first World Cup win. It has been 46 years now. We hope that
India wins the hockey World Cup in 2023 and we get a chance to relive those moments.’
(From the book: Journey of a Nation: 75 years of Indian Sports)
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