Major Dhyan Chand-Wizard of Hockey

In : The Greatest Indian in the world By About :-7 years ago

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Major Dhyan Chand-Wizard of Hockey

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Major Dhyan Chand was one of the best hockey players of India. He played for the Indian team in the era when Indian Hockey team used to be at the top, among all hockey teams.  He was the highly talented sportsperson and was known as ‘The Wizard' of Hockey. Besides being an expert in dribbling, his control over the ball was tremendous. Because of his excellent goalscoring feats as well as his dribbling techniques he was called as ‘Magician with a stick'. It's been said that Adolf Hitler was so much impressed by Major Dhyan Chand's game that he offered him colonel post in his army along with German Citizenship.

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Major Dhyan Chand's real name was Dhyan Singh. ‘Chand ‘ is title added by his first coach which means very few. He was born on August 29, 1905, in Allahabad. His father Sameshwar Dutt Singh was also a hockey player used to play hockey for British Indian Army. Dhyan Singh also joined the army at age of 16. It was during Army stint that Dhyan Chand started playing the game seriously. On the basis of his excellent performances in various army tournaments, he got selected in Indian Army Team which was going on New Zealand tour to play matches. He was promoted to the rank of Lance Naik for his tremendous performance during those matches. via

Indian Team won various pre-Olympic matches in Amsterdam. In his debut Olympic match Major Dhyan Chand scored 3 goals against Austria. Indian reached finals and won the Olympic Gold Medal by defeating home team, Netherlands. Major Chand scored 14 Goals in the entire Olympic series. In 1932, India won its second Gold Olympic Medal. Dhyan Chand scored 133 goals during team's International tour. On the basis of his tremendous performance, he was made the captain of the Team in 1934. It was under his captaincy that India won its third Gold Olympic Gold Medal in 1936. After retiring from Army in late 1956 he became the coach.  

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Major Dhyan Chand has scored more than one thousand goals during his Hockey Career. In 1956, he was honored with the Padma Bhushan. In his honor, the lifetime achievement award in sports is named after him-The Dhyan Chand Award. Moreover, his birthday i.e. 29 August is celebrated as National Sports Day. In Vienna; there is a statue of this legendary hockey player which has four hands and four sticks. He died in 1979. 

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