The man who ruled the world with a hockey stick…the legendary late Shri Major Dhyan Chand…a man who is better known to the world as “The Wizard of Hockey”, was no ordinary human being. His name is forever stored in the hall of fame & is someone who is deeply revered by the hockey players all around the world. His name is associated with some of the people of our country who uplifted the status of our country among the elite.

  Dhyan Chand was a “Lance Naik” in the Indian Army and he is without ant doubt, one of the greatest hockey players to have ever lived on this plane of existence. To the uninitiated in the game of Hockey, or those who are more familiar with the game of cricket than hockey, they might think of him as hockey’s Sir Don Bradman to under the stature of Major Dhyan Chand.  

Once, after watching Major Dhyan Chand playing hockey in his spectacular way at Adelaide in 1935, Sir Don Bradman was so impressed that, the great Australian cricketer remarked, “He scores goals like runs in cricket”.

There was a reason why he was known to the world as a magician…a wizard of Hockey. Actually, there were plenty of reasons. He was the kind of player who would never hold onto the ball for even a second more than what was necessary. He had such an exuberant confidence that he would ask his teammates to pass on the ball to him and then, he would easily do the rest. If the ground is slippery due to rain a night before the match, he would take out his shoes and would play with bare feet. His spectacular stick work and the way he used to move with the ball would puzzle all the spectators present in the stadium to watch the game.

By going through the facts I literally got astonished that through his influence India won seven out of eight gold medals in Olympics which took place in between 1928 to 1964. His contribution in making India win three Olympic Gold medals in 1928, 32 and 36 couldn’t be described in words.

He played his final match in the year 1948 and holds the record of hitting 400 international goals which is simply an amazing milestone to achieve.

To honor him the National Hockey stadium in Delhi was been renamed as Dhyan Chand stadium in the year 2002. He has also has served in the Indian Army when he was just 16 years of age and he retired when he was a major.