Jaishankar pays tribute to Wizard of Hockey Major Dhyan Chand on his birth anniversary
Aug 29, 2022
NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Monday paid tribute to the wizard of hockey, Major Dhyan Chand on his birth anniversary.
Every year, National Sports Day is celebrated on August 29 on the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.
"Tributes to Major Dhyan Chand on his birth anniversary and Greetings to all sportspersons on #NationalSportsDay. A sporting nation is a fitter nation and therefore a more capable and confident one," tweeted Jaishankar.
The Day has been dedicated to the great athlete and hockey player Dhyan Chand who won gold for India in Olympics thrice and was also known as The Wizard of Hockey.
National Sports Day was included in the list of celebratory days in India for the first time in 2012.
The National Sports Day is celebrated in memory of Major Dhyan Chand and also with the objective to highlight the significance of sports in our lives and staying fit and healthy.
The President of India gives away the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and Dronacharya Award on this day at the Rashtrapati Bhavan to sportsmen and coaches across various sports.
This day has been used as a platform by the government to launch various schemes or programmes.
Chand played field hockey for the United Provinces team from where he got selected to play for the Indian team that went to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
In the 1928 Olympics, the Indian team won gold defeating their opponents by huge margins. This was the country's first gold medal.
Dhyan Chand netted many goals and international newspapers described him as a 'magician of hockey'.
His amazing control over the ball and superb passes garnered a lot of attention and appreciation.
In the next Olympics which was held in Los Angeles (US) in 1932, the Indian team repeated their stellar performance of 1928 and won the gold. Chand along with his brother Roop Singh scored 25 out of the 35 goals India scored. This led to them being nicknamed the 'hockey twins'.
In the final match against the hosts US, India had a comprehensive victory scoring 24 goals (which was a world record broken only in 2003) as against US' 1 goal.
In 1934, Chand was made the captain of the Indian team.
In the Berlin Olympics of 1936, India faced hosts Germany in the finals. India won 8-1 with Dhyan Chand scoring 3 goals. Amazingly, the only goal conceded by India in the entire tournament was the one goal in the finals.
Chand played many domestic and international matches and shone like a star in all of them.
This 'Wizard of Hockey' was matched by none in the game of hockey and did wonders to being glory and happiness to a country that was reeling under a colonial power.
In 1956, Chand retired from the army as a Major. In the same year, he was conferred the Padma Bhushan.
After retirement, Chand coached for many years. Not surprisingly, Dhyan Chand is considered the greatest hockey player of all time.
