By Olympic Gold Medallist M. N. Masood
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Pre-Olympic
| We were invited by the Allianz und Stuttgarter
Insurance Co. located in Taubenstrasse, an eastern suburb of Berlin.
The company has 12,000 employees, 3,000 of whom work in the Berlin offices alone. A warm welcome and an informal tea and supper greeted us. The club pin, a pencil, a cigarette lighter and the club flag were given to each of us in remembrance of our visit. |
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e played
eight practice matches before the Olympics.
1. India 1 - Germany 4
The first practice game in Berlin was against a select German side on the Berliner Club ground on July 17. The match was an eye-opener to most of us, for the Germans showed us that they had improved appreciably on their last Olympic form.
The Germans depended on hard hitting, fast runs and first-time clearances. We played the game in our own style - short passes, dribbling and planned movement. The ground, however, did not help us in our quick, short movements, and lack of understanding in the defence, poor finish amongst the forwards and lack of physical fitness in the whole team showed our opponents a better side, and the result was 4-1 in favour of Germany.
Needless to say, the defeat at the hands of our closest rivals in the Olympic tournament made us feel sad, but we took shelter in the hope that with practice and physical training, we should have the necessary combination and physical fitness to beat the Germans next time.
Roop was on the sick list and we missed him much.
The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Tapsell and Mohammad Hussain; Cullen, Masood and Gallibardy; Shahabuddin, Emmett, Dhyan Chand, Jaffar and Peter Fernandes.
2. India 5 - Berliner Hockey Club 1
The second practice game was against the Berliner Hockey Club on their ground. A slight drizzle changed the state of the ground, making it soft and slippery and resulted in almost all our players, who wore light crepe shoes or boots, losing their balance very frequently.
India won 5-1, but it cannot be said that we displayed any perceptible improvement on our last game. We won because the two sides were not evenly matched.
The Indian team was as follows: Mitchie; Phillips and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Cullen and Gurcharan Singh; Ahmad Sher Khan, Jaffar, Dhyan Chand, Emmett and Fernandes.
3. India 13 - Berlin Select 1st Team 3
India played her third practice game on July 23 against the Berlin Select 1st team on one of the practice grounds of the Reich Sport Field, and won it comfortably 13-3.
The Reich Sport Field, nine miles east of the Village and eleven miles west of Berlin, was incomparable both in magnificence and size. Covering an expanse of 323.5 acres, it provided facilities for numerous types of sports - athletics and field events, swimming and riding, gymnastics and tennis, hockey and football.
The central dominating structure was, of course, the monumental Olympic Stadium, capable of accommodating 130,000 spectators. The Hockey Stadium, located north-east of the Olympic Stadium, was built very close to it, at a distance of a few minutes walk only.
In our second game, there was a marked improvement amongst our forwards, but very little of understanding was noticed between the half-backs and full-backs. The three goals scored against us were the result of misunderstanding between these two departments.
The game was not so one-sided as the score might lead to suggest. From the start to the finish the Germans played with courage, and often our goal was in danger. ‘Through’ passes to wing forwards were fully exploited by them, hard hits fully utilised, but they were opposed to a side which was far superior to them in the science of the game.
The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Tapsell and Phillips; Nimal, Masood and Cullen; Shahabuddin, Jaffar, Dhyan Chand, Emmett and Peter Fernandes.
4. India 15 - Brandenburg Club 0
India played her fourth practice game against Brandenburg club on the Reich Sport Field practice ground on 24th July. Brandenburg club stood sixth in the ladder of Berlin clubs, and much could not, therefore, be expected from it. They played, however, with determination from the start to the finish, and were never daunted by the world's champions.
More goals could have been added to the score if our forwards had resorted to less dribbling and short passes. Roop Singh played his first practice game in Germany.
The Indian team was as follows: Mitchie; Tapsell and Mohammad Hussain; Gurcharan Singh, Cullen and Gallibardy; Ahmad Sher Khan, Jaffar, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Fernandes.
5. India 5 - Stettin 1
On 25th July, India played her fifth practice game at Stettin, a port on the Baltic sea, about 70 miles from Berlin.
We left the Village by bus at 11:15 am and took the train to Stettin at 12.45 pm, arriving there at 3:15 pm. Some of the hockey officials welcomed us at the station and led us to the hockey ground in private motor cars. After a cup of tea, we entered the ground amidst loud cheers from a big crowd.
The ground was bumpy and uneven, and as would be expected, India could not give her very best to her thousands of admirers. The result was 5-1 in India's favour. The Stettin boys played a dashing, determined game and kept a very fast pace to the finish.
Tea after the game, short speeches by Mr. Jagannath and Mr. Pekold, captain of the Stettin side, a drive back to the station, and a two-hour train run in a drizzling rain brought us to Berlin at 9:00 pm, where a waiting bus took us to the Village and to a very late meal.
In Stettin, for the first time, we met a crowd of autograph hunters, young and old, asking for our autographs on autograph books, slips of papers, or whatever eager hands could seize on.
The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Phillips and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Masood and Gallibardy; Shahabuddin, Jaffar, Emmett, Roop Singh and Fernandes.
6. India 8 - Afghanistan 2
India played her sixth practice game against Afghanistan on 27th July at the Reich Sport Field practice ground. The ground was heavy with long grass, and a slight drizzle made it slippery.
The Afghan players, most of whom were born and educated in India, played our style of hockey, but with a vim and vigour which is perhaps due to the Afghan blood running in their veins. The average age of their players was somewhere between 25 to 30 years, and perhaps they might have been the oldest team in the Olympic tournament.
One remarkable feature in their team was that Yusuf, their captain, played with his son, Asif, in the defence. India played with ease and the result, 8-2 in India's favour, was none too flattering.
The Indian team was as follows: Mitchie; Tapsell and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Masood and Cullen; Ahmad Sher Khan, Emmett, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Peter Fernandes.
7. India 9 - USA 1
India played her seventh practice game against USA on 28th July at the Reich Sport Field practice ground, and won 9-1. The score could have been doubled if India's forwards had not resorted to dribbling and short passes on a heavy, wet ground.
USA tried to play our game and only succeeded in proving themselves a club side of India. Some of their boys could not even hit properly, but it must be said to their credit that they never lost heart and their defence tackled very doggedly to the finish.
The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Phillips and Mohammad Hussain; Gurcharan Singh, Cullen and Gallibardy; Ahmad Sher Khan, Emmett, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Jaffar.
8. India 15 - USA 0
India played her eighth practice game against America again on 30th July at the Reich Sport Field, and won comfortably 15-0. The losers made the same mistake they did previously, that of playing India at her own game.
With a dry, closely cropped ground in her favour, India's forwards revelled in dribbling and short passes and never gave breathing time to America's defence, which was so overworked that it could not help any of the sporadic, aimless attacks made by its forwards.
The utility of playing again with America when there were much stronger sides to practice with was, however, questionable.
The Indian team was as follows: Mitchie, Tapsell and Mohammad Husain; Nimal, Cullen and Gallibardy; Shahabuddin, Jaffar, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Fernandes.
The Allianz und Stuttgarter Insurance Co.
After the game, we were invited by the Allianz und Stuttgarter Insurance club to tea and a light supper. An hour's bus drive took us to Taubenstrasse, an eastern suburb of Berlin. A warm welcome and an informal tea and supper greeted us.
Short speeches by the president of the club and Mr. Jagannath finished a very pleasant function. The club pin, a pencil, a cigarette lighter and the club flag were given to each of us in remembrance of our visit to the club.
The Allianz und Stuttgarter Insurance Co. is the largest of its kind in Germany. It has 12,000 employees, 3,000 of whom work in the Berlin offices of the company alone. The majority of the employees are members of the club, paying a nominal subscription for membership, but enjoying the use of a stadium, athletic tracks, hockey and football grounds, tennis courts, swimming baths and facilities for yachting.
The company, as I understood, spends thousands of marks every year to afford sporting facilities to its employees, thereby creating a healthy atmosphere which results in confidence in the employees and trust in their employers.
At the Reich Sports Field practice grounds