The Greatest Sporting Wizard: Major Dhyan Chand

 The Greatest Sporting Wizard

Major Dhyan Chand

A Tribute to the first Sports Superstar of India.

29th August, the day is reckoned as the National Sports day for India. This day in the year 1905 the magician of the sporting world was born- Dhyan Singh. 

Known as The Wizard or The Magician of hockey for his superb ball control, Dhyan Chand played internationally from 1926 to 1949, where he scored 570 goals in 185 matches according to his autobiography, Goal 9and over 1,000 goals in his entire domestic and international career.

His father Sameshwar Dutt Singh Bias was in British Indian Army, played hockey for Army and he had two brothers, younger of whom Roop Singh also an established Indian hockey player. The family finally had settled at Jhansi. At the age of 16 years Dhyan Singh joined the British Indian Army as a Sepoy. He never had any inclination towards hockey but joining the Army he started liking the game. In view of his engagements during the daytime, he could not practice the game, but he found time in the night and started practising. In fact, at times, he had to practice in the moon lit nights and his coach and fellow players started him calling by his nickname given by them ‘Chand’ (the moon). He primarily played for the Army in Regimental games during 1922-26, when finally, he was selected for the National Army team.

After successfully lobbying for reintroducing field hockey in the Olympics, the newly formed Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) made preparations to send its best possible team for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. In 1928, an Inter-Provincial Tournament was held to select the team members. Five teams participated in the inaugural nationals – United Provinces (UP), Punjab, Bengal, Rajputana and Central Provinces. Chand got permission from the Army to play for the United Provinces team.

His performance and goal scoring qualities clubbed with magical powers of his stick, slowly became the mainstay in the goal scoring line and was the automatic choice for the centre forward in the Indian team for the 1928 Olympic games.

(Narrated by Ashok Kumar, the Indian Hockey player, Olympian, son of Major Dhyan Chand). 

The 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics became the starting point of the journey of Indian Hockey in the global map. On 17 May the Indian national hockey team made its Olympic debut against Austria, winning 6–0, with Chand scoring 3 goals. The next day India defeated Belgium 9–0; however, Chand only scored once. On 20 May, Denmark lost to India 5–0, with Chand netting three. Two days later, he scored 4 goals when India defeated Switzerland 6–0. Final match took place on 26 May, with India facing the home team of the Netherlands. The Indian team had to play with a skeletal in view of their main players indisposed, but still India won 3-0 with Dhyan Chand doing the scoring,

A newspaper report about India's triumph said:

This is not a game of hockey, but magic. Dhyan Chand is in fact the magician of hockey. To check what is the mystery behind this magic, authorities in the Netherlands in fact broke Chand's hockey stick to check if there was any magnet inside owing to his superb ball control ability. It is said that an elderly woman asked him to play with her walking cane and he continued to score goals with it.

The next stop was 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. On 4 August 1932, India played its first match against Japan and won 11–1. Chand, Roop Singh, Gurmit Singh each scored thrice, and Dickie Carr once. In the final on 11 August, India played against hosts USA. India won 24–1, a world record at that time (until it was broken in 2003), and once again clinched the gold medal. Chand scored eight times, Roop Singh 10, Gurmit Singh five, and Pinniger once. In fact, Chand along with his brother Roop scored 25 out of the 35 goals scored by India. This led to them being dubbed the 'hockey twins'.

The last in the Olympics list for Dhyan Chand was 1936 games in Berlin. On 5 August, India won its first match against Hungary 4–0. India won the rest of the group matches against the USA (7–0, with Chand scoring 2 goals) and Japan (9–0, with Chand scoring 4). On 10 August, Ali Dara arrived. Their fourth match was the semi-final against France, whom they defeated 10–0, with Chand scoring 4 goals. India and Germany were to clash in the 1936 Berlin Olympics field hockey final on 19 August.

On the morning of the finals, entire team was nervous as it was their home ground and Germany were a strong side. The game was played at a fast pace and had many incidents which put this game as one of the best performances of Indian team. The German team undercut and lifted the ball to be placed in the opponent’s half but Indian team were at their best playing total hockey with long shots and brilliant half-volleying. Seeing the ground conditions and to have better ball control, Dhyan Chand suddenly removed his spiked shoes and stocking and played with bare legs and became faster in the second half. The brilliance of Dhyan Chand was visible to all in the ground and the team put up a splendid display beating Germany 8-1. The vigorous German attacks were brilliantly saved by Allen and Tapsell. The goal scored by Weiss of Germany was the only goal scored against the Indians throughout the tournament. Dhyan Chand and Dara impressed by their combination, Tapsell by his reliability and Jaffar by his tremendous bursts of speed.

In his autobiography Goal! Dhyan Chand wrote:

“When Germany was four goals down, a ball hit Allen's pad and rebounded. The Germans took full advantage of this and made a rush, netting the ball before we could stop it. That was the only goal Germany would score in the match against our eight, and incidentally the only goal scored against India in the entire Olympic tournament. India's goal-getters were Roop Singh, Tapsell and Jaffar with one each, Dara two and me three.”

It is reported that the German leader Adolf Hitler was so impressed with Chand's skills that he offered him German citizenship and a position of Colonel in the German Army. , Dhyan Chand refused the offer politely.

Since in 1940 and 1944 there were no Olympics due to the ongoing wars, Dhyan Chand slowly left serious hockey and played his last game was leading a Rest of India side against Bengal team in early 1948. The match ended in a draw after which the Bengal Hockey Association organized a public function to honor Chand's services to Indian hockey. Personally, Dhyan Chand considers his final match “1933 Beighton Cup” played between “Calcutta Custom” and “Jhansi Heroes”, to be his best.

After 34 years of service, Major Dhyan Chand retired from the Indian Army on 29 August 1956. The Government of India honored him the same year by conferring him the Padma Bhushan. All the sports lovers eagerly wait for Government to confer Dhyan Chand with Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award.

There are few more interesting stories related to the playing days of Major Dhyan Chand, which reflects his magical powers on and off the field.

1. In one instance while playing a match, Dhyan Chand was unable to score a single goal against the opposition team. After failing several times, he complained to the referee and asked him to check the measurement of the goal post, and surprisingly, it was found that the width of the goal post was not in accordance with international rules.

2. Following India’s first match at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, a huge crowd started to gather at the hockey ground to watch Dhyan Chand. The headline of a German newspaper read: ‘There is now a magic show in the Olympic campus. ‘ Subsequently the next day, streets of Berlin were strewn with posters, with the words “Go to the hockey stadium and see the magic of the Indian magician“.

3. During a match with Germany in 1936 Olympics, Dhyan Chand lost a tooth when he collided with Germany’s goalkeeper “Tito Varnholt”. After getting the first aid done, Dhyan Chand reportedly advised the Indian players not to score goals for the purpose of “teaching a lesson” to the German players. Later, the Indian players repeatedly take the ball to the goalpost of Germany and again bring the ball back to their court.

4. When the Indian hockey team was in Australia in 1935, cricket player Don Bradman and Dhyan Chand met each other in Adelaide. After watching Dhyan Chand’s game, Don Bradman said, “He scores goals in hockey in the same way that runs are scored in cricket. “

5. It is said that there used to be a statue of him with four hands and four hockey sticks in Vienna (Austria) indicating his control and mastery over the ball. Perhaps the reports are an exaggeration because at present there is neither such an idol nor any documents related to it.

This year, the Asia Cup 2025 hockey tournament also starts on August 29 in Rajgir, Bihar, the birth day of Major Dhyan Chand. 

This tournament is again a new begining  to reach the top. We all expect for a podium finish in each games for Hockey India and thus all are eager to see that happen. 

Hosts India, will led by ace drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh, have been drawn in Pool A along with the People’s Republic of China. Record five-time Asia Cup champions and current title holders the Republic of Korea are in Pool B.

Asia Cup 2025 hockey groups and teams

Pool A: India, Japan, China, Kazakhstan

Pool B: South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei

The Pakistan hockey team and Oman have withdrawn from the Asia Cup with Bangladesh and Kazakhstan named as their replacements, respectively. 

This year’s quadrennial continental showpiece - the 12th edition of the men’s Asia Cup - also carries added significance as a qualifying event for the 2026 Hockey World Cup, to be jointly hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium.

The winner will get a direct spot in next year’s global showcase while the teams ranking second to sixth will earn a spot in the 2026 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup Qualifiers to be played in February-March next year.