Here's a match-by-match breakdown of the All-India hockey team's journey to its maiden Olympic gold. Fourteen players had mesmerised the world in Amsterdam, prompting one Dutch journalist to describe them as “tanned diabolical jugglers.” After watching the Indians play, this unnamed journalist had written: “This is no longer the game of hockey. It is a juggling turn. It is splendid.”
The Ninth Olympiad: Amsterdam 1928
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| (Back row, from left) Richard James Allen, Maurice/Michael Gateley, Leslie Charles Hammond, Dhyan Chand, Broome Eric Pinniger, George E. Marthins, William James Goodsir-Cullen; (front row, from left) Richard A. Norris, Michael E. Rocque, Shaukat Ali, Frederick Seaman. Absent: Jaipal Singh, Kher/Kehr Singh, S.M. Yusuf, Feroze Khan. Source: http://www.bharatiyahockey.org/granthalaya/goal/ |
Richard James Allen, Michael E. Rocque, Leslie Charles Hammond, Richard A. Norris, Broome Eric Pinniger, William James Goodsir-Cullen, Maurice/Michael Gateley , Shaukat Ali, Dhyan Chand, George E. Marthins, Frederick Seaman, Jaipal Singh, S.M. Yusuf, Feroze Khan.
* Kher/Kehr Singh Gill was in the squad but did not play a single match in the Olympics owing to a knee injury.
17 May 1928: Division A: League match: India Vs. Austria
India XI: Richard James Allen; Michael E. Rocque, Leslie Charles Hammond; R.A. Norris, Broome Eric Pinniger, William James Goodsir-Cullen; M.A. Gateley, A. Shaukat, Dhyan Chand, G.E. Marthins, F.S. Seaman.
Result: India 6 (Dhyan Chand 4; A. Shaukat 1, M. Gateley 1) Austria 0
Notes:
i. India played their first ever match in the Olympics without their captain, Jaipal Singh.
ii. India scored three goals in each half. Dhyan Chand scored the first four, according to a report published in The Statesman on 19 May 1928 (page 11).
18 May 1928: Division A: League Match: India Vs. Belgium
India XI: Richard James Allen; Michael E. Rocque, Jaipal Singh; R.A. Norris, Broome Eric Pinniger, S. M. Yusuf; A. Shaukat, F.U. Khan, Dhyan Chand, G.E. Marthins, F.S. Seaman.
Result: India 9 (F.U. Khan 5; G.E. Marthns 1; F.S. Seaman 2; Dhyan Chand 1) Belgium 0
Notes:
i. Three changes in the team: Jaipal Singh played his first match, replacing Hammond; Yusuf replaced Goodsir-Cullen at left-half; Feroze Khan replaced Gateley but played inside right while Shaukat Ali moved to right wing.
ii. India led five-nil at the break, according to a report published in The Statesman on 20 May 1928 (page 11).
20 May 1928: Division A: League Match: India Vs. Denmark
India XI: Richard James Allen; Michael E. Rocque, Jaipal Singh; R.A. Norris, Broome Eric Pinniger, S.M. Yusuf; A. Shaukat, F.U. Khan, Dhyan Chand, G.E. Marthins, F.S. Seaman.
Result: India 5 (Dhyan Chand 4; F.S. Seaman 1) Switzerland 0
Notes:
i. No changes in the team, a fact corroborated by Dhyan Chand’s autobiography; however, a Reuters report published in The Statesman on 22 May 1928 (page 12) said Hammond and Shaukat Ali replaced Rocque and Gateley, ‘both slightly injured’. This seems inaccurate. According to the official Olympic report and Dhyan Chand's autobiography, Shaukat Ali had played both previous matches and held his place against Denmark, while Gateley had been replaced by Feroze Khan against Belgium. No corroboration found for Hammond’s participation in this game.
ii. Feroze Khan broke his collar-bone in a collision with an opponent in the middle of the first half and retired, said the Reuters report published in The Statesman on 22 May 1928 (page 12). He would play no further part in the tournament.
22 May 1928: Division A: League Match: India Vs. Switzerland
India XI: Richard James Allen; Leslie Charles Hammond, Michael E. Rocque; William James Goodsir-Cullen, Broome Eric Pinniger, R.A. Norris; S.M. Yusuf, M.A. Gateley, Dhyan Chand, G.E. Marthins, F.S. Seaman.
Result: India 6 (Dhyan Chand 3, Gateley 2, Marthins 1) Switzerland 0
Notes:
i. The line-up given in the official Olympic report seems to have swapped right and left players at back and half-back.
ii. Three changes in the team: Hammond back after two games, replacing Jaipal Singh (but did Hammond swap places with Rocque?); Goodsir-Cullen and Gateley replaced Shaukat Ali and the injured Feroze Khan—Goodsir-Cullen slotted into half-back (but did he swap places with Norris?), forcing Yusuf to move up to Shaukat Ali’s position on right wing; Gateley played inside right in place of Feroze.
iii. Sports-reference.com credits Dhyan Chand with four goals and Gateley with only one.
India topped Division A by winning all four Group League matches and qualified for the final where they would meet Holland, the winners of Division B.
26 May 1928: Final: India Vs. Holland
India XI: Richard James Allen; Michael E. Rocque, Leslie Charles Hammond; R.A. Norris, Broome Eric Pinniger, S.M. Yusuf; M.A. Gateley, G.E. Marthins, Dhyan Chand, F.S. Seaman, William James Goodsir-Cullen.
Result: India 3 (Dhyan Chand 2; Marthins 1) Holland 0
Note:
i. No changes in personnel, but positions were shuffled: Yusuf went back to left half; Gateley pushed to right wing, as in the first match of the tournament, and Marthins moved from inside left to inside right; Seaman moved to inside left from left wing; Goodsir-Cullen played on left wing instead of his customary position at left half.
* The Official Olympic report has been used as the primary source of information on team-related matters. Wherever possible, the facts have been checked against other sources, including contemporary newspaper reports, books and articles published later and databases for Olympics-related statistics. Contradictions as well as corroborations have been noted. You may find variant spellings of certain names, though usually it is possible to make out who is being mentioned.
Thank you for this blog. The history is very interesting, and it's a shame that most of us know so little about it. I am actually very interested to understand how Indians came to possess such superlative skills at hockey. I presume it was the British who brought the game to India, and in the early days it was probably played only within the army... is that correct? If so, how is it that Indians learnt to play the game so well that they baffled every other team from their very first Olympics? For example, was there other traditional games that helped them adapt to the way hockey was played (I can't think of any)?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. You are right, the British brought modern hockey to India in the 19th century. No, I can't think of any traditional game either that may have helped Indians master hockey.
DeleteThe Indian Army (technically the British Indian Army) was an early patron of the game, but not the only one. The Beighton Cup, for years the most important hockey tournament in India, began in Calcutta in 1895 and the list of winners is full of civilian teams from the start. I am not sure if army teams often took part in the competition, though the 1st Royal Irish Rifles won it it 1901.
How is it that the Indians turned out to be so much better at hockey compared to all other participating teams in their first Olympics? For one, we must remember that it was the debut Olympics for the hockey teams of four other countries—Austria, Switzerland, Spain and eventual runners-up, the Netherlands. Also, Great Britain did not send a hockey team to Amsterdam although it had won gold the last time hockey was included in the Olympics (in Antwerp in 1920) and its constituent parts had won gold (England), silver (Ireland) and bronze (Scotland and Wales) when hockey was made part of the Olympics for the first time (in London in 1908). In many ways, Amsterdam in 1928 provided a level playing field, till India sprang a surprise.
How did India manage that? Possible reasons include:
1. Broad base: contemporary estimates talk about nearly 3,000 teams playing hockey in India. The best teams competed for top prizes such as the Beighton Cup in Calcutta, the Aga Khan Cup in Bombay, and the Gwalior Gold Cup every year.
2. Patronage: hockey being an amateur sport, the players need sympathetic employers. In India, apart from the Army, a number of civilian organisations had hockey teams. Many educational institutions, particularly Anglo-Indian ones, helped spread hockey by introducing their students to the game.
3. Tough competition at home: the All-India team for the 1928 Olympics was selected after a hard-fought Inter-Provincial Tournament in Calcutta involving five teams. Everyone had to prove his worth to get into the team.