1975 legends get the cold shoulder from Punjab

Even as India still celebrates the men’s hockey team’s most recent Olympics success, the golden jubilee of one of Indian hockey’s most memorable triumphs approaches, but without much fanfare.

The men’s team added another bronze — its second successive — to India’s record tally of Olympics medals, the third place finish in last year’s Paris Games making it 13 medals in total.

While India ended its 41-year wait for an Olympics medal in 2021, the drought at the World Cup seems to be unending. India have finished on the podium at the World Cup only three times — third in 1971, second in 1973 and winners in 1975.

March 15 (Saturday) marks the 50th anniversary of India’s famous win over Pakistan in the final in Kuala Lumpur, where Surjit Singh scored the equaliser and Ashok Kumar grabbed the winning goal. The fact that the win in 1975 remains India’s only World Cup triumph makes it an even greater achievement.

While Hockey India is planning to felicitate the iconic team during its annual awards ceremony on Saturday, some of the team’s members are disheartened by the lack of initiative from the Punjab government.

Not only did the team include seven Punjab-origin players, the state played a key role in India’s victory. “The training camp was organised by Punjab. Our coach and manager were from Punjab. There were many players from the state. After our victory, we were felicitated by the state government,” said Harcharan Singh, a member of the 1975 team.

“So we thought it would be nice to be honoured by the state. In October, when we (team members) got together in Jalandhar for a felicitation event at the Surjit Hockey Tournament, we spoke about it. I even had a discussion with Punjab minister Harpal Singh Cheema at the event, telling him about the golden jubilee,” he added. “We decided to send a formal email to the Punjab government, with Ajit Pal Singh as captain of the 1975 team being the signatory. But there has been no reply. It would have been a great gesture from the state, something to motivate the younger generations,” he added.

Ajit Pal Singh said he had sent the email to the Punjab Chief Minister, also marking it to other officials. “I still haven’t received a reply. I remember the training camp was organised by the Giani Zail Singh government. They took care of all our needs, even honoured us on our return,” the former captain said.

Sports director Harpreet Singh Sudan could not be reached for the query about whether the Punjab government is planning to felicitate the 1975 team members.