There are special days and there are epochal days. When India takes on Great Britain in the Quarterfinals of the Men’s Field Hockey Tournament at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (This piece was published on August 01, 2021), there will be a lot of refresher courses happening across India, around the halcyon days of Indian hockey, its pinnacle from the history of time, the reasons for its demise and a variety of factors that contributed to its fall from the grace. This is because of the drought India has had encountered in Hockey at the Olympics since 1980 (Boycotted by the US allies), or, to the connoisseurs, from 1972, when India secured its last legitimate bronze. If India were to beat Great Britain in a few hours’ from now, it would be the first Semi-final appearance for the national team of India — Hockey is still the national sport of India — at the semi-final of an Olympics since 1972 / 1980. It would in someway make up for the disappointment for the Barcelona-style Belgium playing India off the park, with superior tactics, at the Quarterfinals of the last Rio Olympics in 2016.
There are many schools of thought and opinions — well-researched to hearsay — on the unfortunate demise of Indian hockey. From the Poly Grass (introduced at Montreal 76) to Astro Turf and from Change of Rules to allegedly favour the Europeans and the Australians to the Indian Hockey Federation being out of touch with reality and from mutinous Indian teams armed with lack of money and facilities to umpires being more stringent on Indian players than others at crucial moments of the games. The last one would come across as a lame excuse offered by the fans of Indian hockey. But there’s some history behind it.
1985. Dhaka. Asia Cup Final. India vs. Pakistan. Pakistan was the defending Olympic and World Champion. In this particular game, India competed well and the game was a 2–2 stalemate at the end of 70 minutes. In the extra time, Pakistan scored controversially through Kaleemullah and the Indians argued that Kaleemullah’s stick had come from over the shoulder. The Indian players surrounded the Japanese umpire, Yashomito Yubuta, and in the ensuing melee, the Japanese umpire collapsed to the ground and became unconscious. He had to be carried off on a stretcher to a hospital and the game restarted after a lengthy delay, with a stand-in umpire filling in for Yubuta. India lost that game 2–3 to Pakistan, thanks to that Kaleemullah goal.
S Thyagarajan, the famous Hockey correspondent for the Indian daily, The Hindu / The Sportstar (Weekly), who was in Dhaka, as one of the three Indian journalists covering the event, wrote in his report that the incident of the umpire being assaulted was more to do with the crowd invasion and the stampede around the police action to clear the crowds, more than the Indian players charging towards and surrounding the umpire menacingly. The Japanese umpire reported to have told the Chief Technical Delegate that he was pushed by an Indian player, whom he could not identify. The Indian goalkeeper, Romeo James, believed the Indian players never physically assaulted the umpire, and, the crowds, which invaded the ground, played a part in the umpire falling to the ground. Plus, the Indian players accused the umpire of being at the evening party hosted by the Bangladesh Government, although he was taken to the hospital only a few hours earlier.
Whatever may be the factual sequence of events leading to the umpire Yubuta being stretchered off to a hospital, the fact that the Chief Technical Delegate adjudged the Six Indian players from that game to be guilty, which led to FIH (International Hockey Federation) banning those Six players for life — Mervyn Fernandez, MM Somayya, Tikken Singh, Romeo James, Rajinder Junior and Hardeep Singh, with four of them being let off after six months, meant the die was well and truly cast from an Indian Hockey’s perspective. This incident would play a big role in the umpires and their decision-making at crucial moments of Indian Hockey games for the next decade and beyond, from 1985. Out of the six players banned, only Rajinder and Romeo James were never allowed to play international hockey again. Though this episode happened in the pre-internet era, the word was telegraphed around the world, especially in the umpires’ circle and the Indian team became a marked team for the umpires, given their deplorable conduct in Dhaka in 1985.
From the 1990 Asian Games to the 1993 World Cup Qualifiers in Poznan, Poland, and from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to the Seoul Olympics of 1988, from the BMW tournament in Amstelveen in 1990 to the Asian Games of 1994, India suffered quite a few marginal decisions going against them. Green Cards were issued, when it didn’t warrant a warning, and Yellow cards were issued when it didn’t warrant more than a Green Card. Before anyone accusing this of being an excuse of a sore loser, this was acknowledged by Els van Breda Vriesman, the Secretary General of FIH (International Hockey Federation in 1994), in an interview with S Thyagarajan. Vriesman blamed the Indian Hockey Federation in not doing enough to fix the image of the Indian hockey, after Dhaka 1985, in terms of player behavior to convince the international umpires of remedial steps being taken.
Fast-forward to 2021: When someone gets frustrated at a delayed TV video from the India vs. Great Britain game, they would have to appreciate what it would have been for the Indian team to have had the option of using a TV video on that ill-fated day in Dhaka in 1985. It’s not the Indian hockey would have set the world alight with its world domination, without the Dhaka 85 fall out. At least, they would have had one less issue to grapple with, along with the Astro Turfs, Changing Rules and mutinous players and an apathetic Indian Hockey Federation / KPS Gill.
As the land of Dhyan Chand holds its collective breath for a good performance and a win over Great Britain in the Quarterfinals (This piece was published on August 01, 2021) of Tokyo 2021, they would hope to have buried the ghosts of Dhaka 85 for once and for all, never to rear its ugly head again.
