The legend has helped India win three consecutive golds and a silver in the most celebrated Olympics, viz. 1948, 1952, 1956. Under his captaincy, the national hockey team clinched silver in the 1960 Summer Olympics, Rome, Italy. Lucky enough, Claudius was born at times when Indian hockey tasted golden days. Apart from these accomplishments, he is remembered for being the first to earn 100 caps, and competed for India in addition to the Olympics, on their European tour of 1949, Malaysian tour of 1952, Australian and New Zealand tours of 1955, and Asian Games in 1958. The 1960 Olympics didn’t pause his game and he continued to impress the audience with remarkable performances domestically and retired finally after the 1965 season. In 1971, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri civil award making Claudius the sixth Indian hockey player to receive the adoration. 

Why did he go for Hockey instead of Football? 

Surprisingly, Leslie’s first love wasn’t hockey but football and was eligible to play for Bengal and Nagpur Railway. But fate has other plans for him. He was noticed by hockey player Dickie Carr. Carr was part of the national team in the 1936 Olympics, our last representation under British rule, and confirmed gold in a tough face-off against Germany. After being spotted by Carr, Leslie represented Bengal and Nagpur Railway in hockey in place of football. 

Sculpted India’s image in Olympics 

He became the first hockey player to participate in four Olympics. The last match was against the arch-rival Pakistan in 1960 and India placed second after a mettlesome match. After his withdrawal, he continued playing domestically and was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1971. He also provided services as the team manager at the 1978 Asian Games. 

The continued legacy

An Anglo-India, Leslie, took his heavenly abode after a long battle with liver cirrhosis at the age of 85 on 20 December 2012. He was survived by his wife and three sons. His son, Robert, represented India internationally at the 1978 World Cup in Mexico. 

Udham Singh and Leslie are the two names who’ve paved their way in the Guinness Book of World Records for claiming the most number of Olympic medals in hockey. At the time of the 2012 Olympics, the Bushey tube station was renamed after Claudius in the special ‘Olympic Legends Map’.

The post Leslie Claudius: Reminiscing Hockey stalwart who helped India win three consecutive Olympics Golds first appeared on The History Book of Indian Hockey.

To your knowledge, Asian Games are due next year and it is the direct qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In the Tokyo Olympics this year, India clinched a medal after a long wait of 41 years. The gleam of the Bronze victory hasn’t worn off yet and the news of the withdrawal of players, who contributed to this path-breaking achievement, caught everyone’s attention.

Staunch Rupinder Pal Singh has played 223 matches so far while stalwart Birendra Lakra played 200 matches, the last being in Tokyo, stressed on “time to allow the next generation of players to experience this great feeling for India” before leaving the stage for newcomers.

Evidently, the timing of such an announcement and gathering for the national team was not coincidental. Inside sources revealed that Rupinder, Lakra, and Sunil were all interested to carry on and expecting to “at least play till the 2022 Asian Games”, but the think-tank planned something different.

The alteration ritual after Olympics

It is not new to anyone that most of the nations opt for the “churn and change” policy after every Olympics cycle concentrating firmly on the players who can last the next four years. Fresh legs are called up and trained to get them going for the pinnacle of it all – the Olympics. And with India’s marvellous triumph at Tokyo, hopes are sky-high.

India has a glorious past at the Olympics, clinching a total of eight golds but failed to fetch any since 1980. Hence, it is understood why the federation, coaches and players don’t want to take a chance tasting victory after a wait of four decades.

Past one week the think-tank and the coaches held exclusive meetings with most of these players in New Delhi, and the players were informed that they were “no longer a part of the scheme of things for now, or even the future”, keeping in mind the next Olympics cycle. It was the termination point for them.

The players had two options, either to wait and watch until they got picked- which was unlikely- or sign off from the game. They chose the dignified way and retired than being dropped from the core group of next in the preference line.

However, retirements in hockey are infrequent. As a matter of fact, there are many players who haven’t announced their retirement until the present. But hockey too had to follow the trend par other sports and there are many dropped players waiting for their turn to get picked as the years passed by.

The last week’s incidents remind us of 2018 when famed midfielder and former captain Sardar Singh became India’s first top player in the recent past to officially announce his retirement.

It was September 2018, the national team had just landed in the country from their bronze-medal finish at the Jakarta Asian Games. The World Cup was due in just a few months at home. They had missed a direct opportunity to qualify for the Tokyo Games and also failed to defend their Asiad title, which had not gone down well with the think tank.

It is conceived that Sardar, who was not in the best of forms at that time, “was told that his services were no longer required”, leading to the hockey renowned’s exit from the game.

The list doesn’t end here, former midfielder Viren Rasquinha was possibly the first international player of modern times to proclaim his retirement hardly days after being omitted from the 2006 Doha Asian Games squad. In 2010, the legendary Dilip Tirkey quit after having represented India in a total of 412 matches, a record that still is unbroken.

India will miss its stars, but probably it was a decision best taken in the interest of the sport.

The post Why do Rupinder and Lakra retire so early? first appeared on The History Book of Indian Hockey.

Singh and Lakra were both members of the national hockey team led by Manpreet Singh that clinched at the Olympics after 41 years. Rupinder said it was time to pave the way for youngsters to play their chance at the international stage. While Lakra was the vice-captain in Tokyo.

India claiming victory over the Bronze at the 2020 Olympics (Tokyo) was an astonishing moment for the country, the occasion for which the country was waiting since 1980.

Singh (30) has played over 200 matches for India and is considered one of the best drag flickers in the world.

‘The past couple of months have undoubtedly been the best days of my life. Standing on the podium in Tokyo along with my teammates with whom I have shared some of the most incredible experiences of my life was a feeling I will cherish forever,” Singh wrote in the social media post.

“I believe it is time for me to make way for young and talented players to experience every great joy I have felt in these last 13 years of representing India,” he added.

It was 2010 at the Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament held in Ipoh, where he played his maiden international match with India clinching gold. His name was on feature continuously for many historic victories of India including the Asian Games (2014) triumph and the Asian Champions Trophy, 2016, where India won Gold. Though his name was dropped from the team briefly in 2018, he made his way back to the team and became a part of the team that triumphed in Tokyo.

Meantime, Mr Lakra has crawled his way up through the ranks of the junior team set-up to debut for the senior national team in the 2010 South Asian Games and was a part of team India’s witnessing glory in 2014 Asian Games, bronze Medal feat in the World League Final 2015 in Raipur, silver medal-winning campaign at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and FIH Men’s Series Finals Bhubaneswar Odisha 2019 among others.

In his well-established career, the two-time Olympian caught the eye in almost all the major tournaments, including the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in 2014 and 2018. He, however, failed to take part in the Rio Olympics 2016 due to a knee injury and made a robust fightback to the Indian setup by playing an instrumental role in the team’s gold medal-winning accomplishment at the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy.

The post “It is time for the youngsters to come to fore,” Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal retires at 30 first appeared on The History Book of Indian Hockey.

Although he considers himself fortunate to be called up as an alternate player because of the Covid-19 pandemic and witness the high-spirited bronze medal-winning play. It was his debut in the Tokyo Olympics. 

Drag-flicker Varun Kumar and midfielder Simranjeet Singh have made their Olympic debut after both were incorporated into the national squad following the International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow “alternate athletes” in team events due to the ongoing pandemic.

“When the squad for the Olympics was announced, my name was not part of the 16-member squad. I still remember that day very well and I was evidently disappointed,” said Varun as quoted by the Scroll.in.

“But after a few days when the IOC allowed hockey teams to expand to 18 players, Simranjeet and I were called up as alternate athletes. It came as a huge relief but somewhere at the back of my mind I was still upset about not making it to the final 16 and I really wanted to prove myself,” he continued.

Kumar further added that it was skipper Manpreet Singh who helped him to keep his morale high before the team left for Tokyo. 

“It really helped that captain Manpreet had a long chat with me and pumped me up mentally. Manpreet has been a big influence in my career from a very young age as we played in the same academy and him talking to me made a lot of difference. I stopped beating myself up for not being good enough to make the 16-member squad. I started focusing on how I can make this opportunity count and deliver when the team needs me,” said Varun.

India’s play at the Tokyo Olympics was stupendous with the men’s team able to clinch an Olympic medal, bronze, after a long wait of 41 years. 

Varun played a vital role in the record-making match of India against Argentina. He scored the first goal followed by India’s win over the opponent 3-1. He was attentive backstage and dazzled the viewers with his performance every time he was called up. 

“It was indeed a fantastic experience in Tokyo. Winning the bronze and standing on the podium along with my teammates is perhaps the best moment of my life. Now my priority will be to improve in every aspect. We have had a good break after the Olympics and we are all waiting to return to camp in October,” he concluded. 

The post Defender Varun Kumar gives credit to Manpreet for influencing his career first appeared on The History Book of Indian Hockey.

Datt is considered to be one of the finest hockey players in India. He was in the national team in London Olympics, 1948, where India bagged the gold medal. Four years later he was elevated to vice-captain position and the national team claimed another gold in the Helsinki games.

His attendant, Dolly Bairagi, confirmed the news of his demise. Bairagi confirmed age-related ailments being the reason for his death. The nonagenarian was under medical assistance for the past few days.

Datt is survived by two sons and a daughter.

He was born in Lahore in 1925. Grew up in western Punjab city, Datt came into the limelight while representing the team in the National Championship in undivided India. He moved to Bombay after the partition of India and in 1950 moved to Calcutta. In the National Championship, he represented Bombay as well as Calcutta.  Datt was coached by Hockey legend Dhyanchand and KD Singh Babu.

The post Hockey legend Keshav Datt bid farewell at 95 first appeared on The History Book of Indian Hockey.