National Sports Day 2023: 11 Interesting Facts About Hockey Wizard Major Dhyan Chand

National Sports Day 2023: Major Dhyan Chand is considered to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time. He had an extraordinary talent for scoring goals, thanks to which India won hockey gold medals in the Olympics in 1928, 1932 and 1936. His era is called the “Golden Age” of Indian hockey.

He is called the “Hockey Wizard” because of his excellent ball control. Major Dhyan Chand announced his retirement from hockey in 1948.

National Sports Day 2023: History, Significance and Key Facts

11 interesting facts about Major Dhyan Chand

1. Dhyan Singh joined the Indian Army at the age of 16 and started playing hockey there. Since Dhyan Singh practiced during the night, his teammates started calling him “Chand”.

2. Once while playing a match, Dhyan Chand failed to score a single goal against the opposing team. After missing several times, he complained to the match referee about the measurement of the goalpost, and surprisingly it turned out that the official goalpost width was not in accordance with international rules.

3. After India’s first match at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, people thronged the hockey ground to watch Dhyan Chand’s magical hockey. A German newspaper headline read: ‘Magic show now taking place on Olympic campus.’ The next day, the streets of Berlin were dotted with posters saying “Go to the hockey stadium and see the magic of an Indian magician.”

4. According to legend, when Hitler saw Dhyan Chand’s magic game against Germany, he offered him to settle in Germany and offered him the rank of colonel in his army, but Dhyan Chand smiled and refused the offer.

5. During a match against Germany in the 1936 Olympics, Dhyan Chand’s tooth was broken when he collided with Germany’s fiery goalkeeper “Tito Varnholt”. On returning to the field after the first aid, Dhyan Chand advised the Indian players not to score goals to “teach a lesson” to the German players. The Indian players took the ball to Germany’s goal on several occasions and returned the ball to their own court again.

6. In 1935, when the Indian hockey team was in Australia, the great cricketer Don Bradman and the greatest hockey player Dhyan Chand met in Adelaide. After watching Dhyan Chand play, Don Bradman remarked, “He scores runs in hockey the same way runs are scored in cricket.”

7. The people of Vienna (Austria) erected a statue of him with four arms and four hockey sticks, indicating his control and mastery over the ball. However, this may also be an exaggeration because there is currently no such idol or documents related to it.

8. Once in the Netherlands, Dhyan Chand’s hockey stick was broken by the authorities due to the possibility that it contained a magnet.

9. Although Dhyan Chand played many memorable matches, he considered the final match of the 1933 “Beighton Cup” between “Calcutta Custom” and “Jhansi Heroes” as his best match.

10. In the 1932 Summer Olympics, India defeated the United States and Japan 24–1 and 11–1 respectively. Out of these 35 goals, Dhyan Chand scored 12 goals while his brother Roop Singh scored 13 goals. Because of this spectacular performance, both brothers became known as the “hockey twins”.

11. In his entire career, he played about 185 games and scored more than 400 goals.

The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour, in 1956. His birthday is celebrated as the National Sports Day in India on August 29, and the President presents several awards on this day. Hockey magician Dhyan Chand’s autobiography titled “Goal” was published in 1952.

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