6.8 seconds remaining and Germany takes the push! By all accounts this is the final play of the men’s hockey bronze medal play off and the score stands 5-4 in favour of India. Minutes before Sreejesh, the custodian, has let one slip by; so what will it be now? There was silence, just the sound of the skidding ball, the rustle of the almost two score legs on the move, then an almost muffled thud – the sound of the cannoning goal bound projectile finding the goal keeper and being padded away. And then – guttural screams which almost drowned out the long blast signaling the end of the game – screams that announced that 41 years of waiting was finally over – we had won a most cherished Olympic medal in men’s hockey! It was yesterday once more – the Tokyo Encore!
The portents were vey much there in the opening game against the ‘Black Caps’. India, long considered nervous starters in big tournaments, had conceded a goal inside seven minutes but then had consistently pressed forward, applied pressure, created opportunities and within the next 27 minutes were leading 3-1 and eventually won the game 3-2. Nervy moments at the death, reminiscent of the past defeats, threatened to rear their head but were smothered with calmness not overtly associated with Team India. But then, it was there. and instead when down, this team had responded creditably and won the game from a position of disadvantage – an attribute which would have prophetic consequences for Indian hockey at Tokyo 2020.
The team had progressed to the Olympics after a relatively comfortable ride through the qualifying rounds and had also done reasonably well in the FIH Pro League to be ranked fourth behind World Champions and Rio 2016 Silver Medalists, Belgium Champions and traditional nemesis as well as powerhouses Australia and Germany. Travelling to Argentina as part of the ‘away’ fixture of the FIH Pro League, the Indians had comprehensively beaten the Rio 2016 Gold Medalists. So the build up was certainly there and expectations were high as well, though the Indian hockey team had flattered to deceive on many an occasion , most famously at London 2012 when it landed the ‘wooden spoon’ despite a pre Olympic ‘hot streak’.
So when in the very next game at Tokyo, the Aussies hammered the ‘boys in blue’ and sunk them with seven goals the demons from the past were back in business. This defeat to the Aussies was distressing for its outcome and margin but also because in recent years India had put an end to these high margin defeats against the likes of the Aussies and Europeans and had even started beating these teams. Yet another disappointing Olympic campaign seemed to be unfolding for India on the hockey turf.
This ebb and flow of emotions is so very representative of us Indians and specially when the ‘golden days’ of Indian hockey have long been consigned to history. With every win we seem to be clutching at the illusive and long waned glory and with every defeat we have receded deep into the recesses of painful hockey memories of Mexico 1968, Montreal 1976, Asiad 1982, Olympics 1984 and then of course the ‘darkest hour’ of Indian hockey which lasted from the 1990s to the middle of of the 2010s and the sense of hopelessness and despondency ‘peaked’ with the unthinkable happening – India missing out on qualification for Beijing 2008 (equivalent of Brazil not qualifying for a FIFA WC), a painful first in its glorious and gold studded hockey history and followed by the inglorious ‘wooden spoon’ at London 2012!
But then, to the discerning, the portends for the script being rewritten were observable at Tokyo. And the stolid and measured comeback against Spain underscored the foregoing. Team India made a heartening and resounding push back against their own demons and shrugged off the Aussie drubbing as a tactical aberration to swat the Spaniards away 3-0.Next up were the the reigning Olympic Champs, Argentina, the ‘boys in blue’ firmly restored their campaign with a convincing but hard fought win against a doggedly defending opponent to win 3-1 victory.
With the Quarter Finals (QF) assured of , India now were up against the hosts Japan – a team which has shown rapid improvement to be the reigning continental champs. In a game of fluctuating fortunes and one tied at 2-2, Team India changed gears to win by 5-3 and in the process had overcome a difficult adversary and thus went into the QF leg placed 2nd in Group ‘A’ – a remarkable turnaround in fortunes indeed. Another aspect which stood out in the group stages was that the Indians were by far the fittest team and were covering the hard yards well under the searing Tokyo sun. Again, attributes not generally associated with Indian hockey over time. But somewhere between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 the pendulum had swung!
In the QF Final India was to face Great Britain, a tricky team at the best of times. This was going to be as important a match as an Olympic Final because India had not made it to the last four stage of the Olympics in 49 years! And in these 49 years they had gone from the very top to the bottom and though there had been break out matches and associated opportunities to pull Indian hockey out of the abyss, they had mostly been false starts or gone abegging – like the narrow 1-2 loss against Netherlands in the 2018 WC at Bhubaneshwar.
It was apparent that though the Indians had made progress they were still to figure out the nuances of the ‘big match temperament’ – and were also missing the regularity of featuring in the ‘last four’ or the business end of tournaments. And this is why the QF against Great Britain was crucial for Indian hockey’s prospects and for it to come off age in the post Astro Turf era!It is in this backdrop that Team India went and met the British challenge at Tokyo.
While all this was playing out with the boys, the girls were going through their own travails. Ranked 12th in the world and having lost their first three group matches to the Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalists of from Rio 2016, they were down and all but out. But that’s what we thought , isnt it? Not the girls though. In their last two fixtures they played out two virtual knock out games against Ireland and South Africa. Against South Africa Vandana Katariya scored a hat-trick to secure a hard fought and tough 4-3 win for her team. The girls too had played out a dire and doughty script where they refused to call it quits and punched above their weight and swam against the tide to earn a place in the Olympic QF and on Jul 31, both the men’s and women’s teams were in the QFs. This was truly getting special now.
Cut to the men’s QF, 31 – reassured after a tough passage through the group stage , India promptly took control with a 2-0 lead and then snuffed out the otherwise doughty and menacing Britishers on the back of a scintillating counterattack that sealed the victory at 3-1! Hardik had scored a sensational goal and India was on its way to an Olympic semi final! It had finally happened and things were changing for sure.
And while the men were fighting a battle on even terms, the girls were playing out their own version of ‘Chak de’ against the Aussies. Expected to be steamrolled by their #3 ranked opponents, the Indian women had stunned their opponents and caused one of the biggest upsets in history. Reel had met real and fairy tales endings were anything but that – almost out of the tournament, the ‘girls in blue’ had instead done a ‘Houdini’ and were now on their way to the semis too! A team which was 12th out 12 at Rio was now challenging the world on it’s own terms!If one wasnt enough we now had two teams in the semis! Anything could happen from here on!
On August 3, India met Belgium in the men’s semi finals. Playing to reach their first Olympic finals in 41 years the Indians had to get the better of the golden generation of Belgian hockey. The teams were evenly matched and though Belgium took an early lead India pulled back and scored two of their own with the second quarter ending at 2-2. Hereafter the excellence of Stephen Hendrix took over and his hat-trick put the game past India with a 5-2 score line. In the end the difference was in the number of PCs conceded to the world’s best drag flicker in Hendrix. And the Belgians shut out the Indians, proving that playing and winning at the terminal stages of global tournaments is much more than mere skill and drive. They had soured a billion dreams of that fabled and guaranteed Olympic medal and now it was back to the grind for Team India to fight for the Bronze.
The women too met their match against the Argentines, and despite picking an early lead the South Americans shut out the Indian women with a 2-1 win. Such is sports that glorious possibilities transform into tremendous uncernaities and despair within no time. But this time around this wasnt to be.
Buyoed by their respective performances, both the Indian men’s and women’s team were a force to reckon with in the bronze medal matches. the boys went up first against Germany and conceded a potentially fatal 1-3 lead. But thereafter the streak of immense drive and will power overcoming all obstacles that they had been demonstrating took over and in dramatic fashion India unleashed a lethal counter attack to lead 5-3. With less than 10 minutes to go for the hooter Germany pulled one back and pulled their goalie out too and launched an all out assault on the Indian ‘D’. Not ones to wilt under pressure, the Indians soaked in the pressure and then some more. With 6.8 seconds to go, it was as if fate was testing the two teams as to just who was that wee bit hungrier – and the rest as we know is history!
India were Olympic hockey medalists after 41 longyears. After 41 years of constantly going downhill and sliding more than climbing, they finally had a firm footing at the top of world hockey! The men’s team had done it and they had done it for the entire nation of 1.5 billion.
Feeding on the energy and achievement of the men’s team the Indian women too played their hearts out in their Bronze Medal play off against Great Britain, which was a rematch of the group stage where the latter, also the reigning Olympic Gold Medalists, had beaten the Indians 4-1. Trailing 0-2 the Indians emulated the men and at the end of the second quarter were leading 3-2!. In a pacy second half, Team Great Britain pulled level and then nosed ahead and thereafter soaked in the relentless pressure to equalise but the day belonged to them. India lost 3-4 and with it the came to an end the Tokyo journey of the women’s team!
Recounting these moments is emotional for many an Indian and all those who have played this game at any level. Having long lost the crown to the Aussies and Europeans, the bronze medal winning feat of the men’s hockey team was an emotional release of sorts. All those who passed by the hockey fields after 1964 and 1980 have always had the wistful look of missing out what is or was rightfully theirs – such is the legacy of having won eight Olymopic Gold Medals that Indians have always felt that the Gold at the Olympics ‘belonged’ to them.
This event of India being restored in the global hockey hierarchy has fittingly come at Tokyo where long years back in 1964 Mohinder Pal scored the solitary goal against Pakistan to reclaim the Olympic Gold lost in 1960 for the first time since 1928. That match was just as much about honour, pride and legacy as was the Bronze medal match against Germany at Tokyo 2020. A Tokyo Encore in more ways than one!
Though we have still not reclaimed what we have set out to, the ‘Bronze’ at Tokyo is a kiss of life for Indian hockey. It has soothed hurt and hollowed out hearts of generations of hockey players and fans and as a nation collectively. We had only grown up hearing about the Olympic feats of the yesteryears and these were so far back in time and our performance so underwhelming that, over time, our dream was not only belittled (2008) but it seemingly faded out too (2012) – up until Manpreet Singh and co came on to the scene.
Through out the tournament players such as Sreejesh, Amit Rohidas, Rupinderpal, Hardik Singh, Simranjit Singh and Manpreet Singh (Captain) and Gurjant put their bodies on the line and displayed grit and unfailing ‘never say die’ spirit, Something has irrevocably changed about the way Indian hockey is played now. Gone are the days of uncertainity and tentativeness, Gen X has taken over and its fearless brand of hockey has started showing the results we dreamt to achieve else lesser teams would have wilted away after the 1-7 pasting against Australia. Its a testimony to the undying desire and hunger to regain lost glory that the men’s team finally had a podium finish at the Olympics. And this moment is truly , quoting Gautam Gambhir, bigger than 1983,2007 and 2011!
The women’s team too captured the imagination of the Indian nation and there will be many more Rani Rampal, Savita Punia, Lalresami, Vandana Katariya, Salima Tete and Gurpreet Kaur waiting in the wings to take on the world in the lead up to Paris 2024.
The hallmark of the men and women’s teams was that they never gave up, when down they not only found a way out but also pinned their opponents down. Its not that these teams werent playing with the baggage of past despair and humiliation but they overcame it all and believed in themselves to deliver their dream unto themsleves. No one was going to hand over their achievement to them on a platter and they prepared for the hard grind that it involves.
The performance of the Indian women’s team is even bigger in context such that today long time followers of the game talk of the men’s and the women’s team. Forgotten are the days when the narrative was all about the men’s team. After their fourth place finish at Tokyo 2020 the women have ensured that they will be just as keenly followed.
It is also a tribute to the individual journeys of our players, not one among them has had an easy road to the success they are savouring today. From humble backgrounds its to their and their family’s credit that despite the glaring disparity between cricket and other sports and the absence of a stable financial support structure these players and their backers were literally clutching at the wind till they scripted the much awaited comeback of Indian hockey at Tokyo 2020.
While the IHF had let the game slip the resurgence of Indian hockey is no accident and a well thought out structure is now in place and managed by Hockey India. SAI and HI deserve full credit for ensuring that the pandemic did not wreck havoc with the development of the two teams. Also, the support of leaders like Naveen Patnaik and the work of coaches Harendra Singh and Graham Reid with the men is now there for all to see. Sjoerde Marijne and Rani Rampal and her mates will hopefully now be a household names.
Its been a magical two weeks at Tokyo and though Epicurus asked us “….not (to) spoil what you have by desiring what you have not” as a long time Indian hockey fan, follower and a two-bit player in my own right I will boldly contradict him and openly desire the return of the Hockey Olympic Gold Medal to where it belongs – to Indian hockey ! For now not only can we dream big but we can achieve beyond our dreams too.
For all those who followed the matches they will now and forever remember the start point of a truly mesmeric journey for Indian hockey – The Tokyo Encore !
BuTtrvieW 