Chak de India-1980

                                           

   In the Montreal Olympics in 1976, India drew a blank in the hockey and for the first time returned empty handed from the Olympics. All the newspapers and eminent sports magazines like sports week began bashing the Indian hockey team like anything. In 1975 India won the world championship, within a year it has fallen from that heaven fairly and squarely, and that was not acceptable to any one -neither the public nor the press.

  . Four years passed very quickly and it was time for 1980 Moscow Olympics. There was no expectation from the Indian hockey team, which was led by Bhaskaran, because India got lowly sixth place in the 1978 world cup. Nobody was talking of winning any medals. But lo and behold, in its first match on 20^th July India trounced Tanzania 18-0, which is still the second biggest score of Olympic hockey after India’s 24-1 win against USA in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932. This win flickered the ray of hopes in the hearts of the Indians...

 On 21st July, India avoided a certain death. Poland was winning the match 2-1.Just five seconds before the final whistle, Mervyn Fernandes scored for India to make it a 2-2 draw. The same story was repeated in the next match on 23^rd July. Spain was winning the match 2-1. India’s equalizer came just four minutes before the final whistle to make it a 2-2 draw once again.

 However, in the next two matches India performed well. On 24^th July, India beat Cuba by 13-0 and on 26^th July beat hosts USSR by 4-2. Thus, India was in 2^nd position after Spain in the round robin league table.

 The D-day was 29^th July and India took on Spain in the final. I along with my three friends surrounded the big Philips radio kept in our drawing room after coming back from the school, silently praying that there should not be a sudden power cut. The commentators of Akashvani were nice. The voice was clear. We were following the match with our nails biting.

  The first half was goal less and early in the second half India established a 3-0 lead. Our breathings became a little easy. Our ears were listening to the commentary eyes were following the hands of the wall clock-when the umpire will blow the final whistle and the tongues were silently praying to all Gods and Goddesses.

 Nevertheless, Spain’s captain and veteran player Juan Amat gave us a near heart attack as he defeated goalkeeper Beer Bahadur Chhetry twice in quick succession to make it 3-2.

  The match was heading towards the end and just before six minutes of that, Mohammad Sahid scored for India to make it 4-2. but within two minutes Juan Amat scored once more to complete his hat trick and it was 4-3.The atmosphere during the last four minutes was really electrifying and I can vouch even today that those moments were not less exciting than the final over of the cricket world championship of 1983 and 2011.

All the commentators of the Akashvani who have so far maintained their impartial attitude have now become downright partial and were openly shouting for India’s favour.

One of my friends pushed the volume knob of the radio to the maximum. My four-year-old sister sleeping in the next room started crying because of all those noise and hullabaloo. At last the final whistle blew .The voice of the commentator was choked with emotion..” Aur is final whistle ke saath he Bharat Moscow Olympic me hockey ka swarn padak jeet liya hai….”

My mother rushed into the drawing room. We explained her everything and demanded money for Campa Cola (that time there was no Pepsi and Coca Cola had temporarily left India).The shopkeeper was a burly Sikh gentleman. We told him that India has won the gold medal and he sprang up from his chair and shouted, “Saabhash India, jeetey raho India, aaj to dil khush ho gaya.”  Then he treated us with Campa Cola and refused to accept any money.

  As the news spread, the people came out to greet one another. In the evening local youth, organization illuminated the area with decorative lights. At the request of my father, mother cooked special biryani for dinner to celebrate the victory.

   Spain’s Captain Juan Amat, who was a veteran of four Olympics and stood as a rock between India and the gold medal, received much praise from Indian press and public. Juan Amat represented Spain in four Olympics – 1968 (Mexico), 1972 (Munich), 1976 (Montreal) and1980 (Moscow), which was his swan song. He and India’s Surinder Singh Sodhi became the top scorer in the Moscow Olympics scoring sixteen goals each. The earlier record of India was of fifteen goals by Udham Singh in 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

  To the generations of Indians like me, born around the mid sixties, the gold medal won by Indian hockey team in Moscow Olympics is the only reliable link to the Indian hockey’s golden Olympic past and the first unforgettable experience of Chak de India in real sense.