Former and current hockey playerscame together to demand Bharat Ratna,the country’s highest civilian award, forthe legendary Major Dhyan Chand, a fewdays ahead of his 115th birth anniversaryon August 29. The day is observed asthe National Sports Day. Dhyan Chand isconsidered as the world’s greatest fieldhockey player of all times and receivedthe Padma Bhushan from the Governmentof India in 1956. What Pele wasto football, Chand was to field hockey.Dhyan Chand earned three Olympic goldmedals in field hockey in t
he years 1928,1932 and 1936. In the 1928 Olympicsthe hockey wizard was the top scorer ofthe tournament scoring an unbelievable14 goals in five matches. In the 1932Olympics India beat host USA by a scoreof 24-1 which was a world record at thetime. In the 1936 Olympics finals Indiadefeated Germany 8-1 and Dhyan Chandscored three goals.Chand was considered as the magicianof hockey which is the nationalsport of India. Incidentally the DhyanChand Award is an award in India for lifetimeachievement in sports. The nationreachedal stadium in Delhi is named as DhyanChand National Stadium. Given hisstupendous contribution to hockey inIndia and of course to world hockey ingeneral, it would be befitting to bestowthe country’s highest civilian award theBharat Ratna on Major Dhyan Chand.ADELMO FERNANDES, Vasco
