Biography of Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand
By Niket Bhushan, Wiley Eastern Ltd., 1992
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Saluting the Tricolour | Suddenly, Mr. Pankaj Gupta
produced a Congress tricolour. Reverently, we saluted it, prayed and marched
onto the field.
The crowd of 40,000 included the Maharaja of Baroda and many Indians who had travelled from the Continent and England. Also in the audience were Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, Goebells, Ribbentrop and others. The vast crowd cheered both the teams as they entered the field. |
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he
hour of the final against mighty Germany approached. Dhyan Chand recounted
later, "The final was played on Saturday, August 15 at 11 am in the Hockey
Stadium. Originally, Friday, August 14 was fixed for the final. But when the Indian team woke up in the morning of August 14, it was raining very
heavily.
When we saw the ground lying under deep water, we became nervous. The impact of the defeat which Germany had inflicted on us in the practice match still lingered. Earlier, assistant manager Pankaj Gupta had admitted to the press that Germany was India's toughest opponent. Manager Jagannath was requested to approach the German hockey officials to postpone the match by one day."
On the morning of August 15, we all met in the dressing room. All of us were wondering as to what would be the result at the end of the match. Never before had we doubted the outcome of a game.
Suddenly, Mr. Pankaj Gupta produced a Congress tricolour. Reverently, we saluted it, prayed and marched onto the field. A crowd of 40,000 that included the Maharaja of Baroda and a large number of Indians who had travelled from all over the Continent and England had turned out to see the final battle. The audience included Adolf Hitler, and top Nazi officials like Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebells, Joachim Ribbentrop and others.
The vast crowd cheered both the teams as they entered the field. In contrast to our despondency, the Germans appeared to feel that they were playing against a very inferior Indian side. According to a newspaper, the nervousness of the Indian players increased because the burden of India's honour was on their shoulders.
Dhyan Chand vs. the German goalkeeper in the 1936 Olympic final