Tour of Pakistan
I was taken aback. We had not taken the match seriously. We had been loafing around and eating to our heart's content. We were sluggish and heavy-footed. Now we had been confronted with this challenge, "Play to win."
The Autobiography of Balbir Singh (Senior)
By Samuel Banerjee, Vikas Publishers, 1977
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Tour of Pakistan |
When we lined up for the formal introduction to the chief
guest, West Punjab Police team captain Aziz whispered in my ears, "Balbir,
I hope you know today we are going all out for a result. It's win or lose,
that's our order."
I was taken aback. We had not taken the match seriously. We had been loafing around and eating to our heart's content. We were sluggish and heavy-footed. Now we had been confronted with this challenge, "Play to win." |
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the captain of the East Punjab Police team, I had a wonderful side with me - Ram
Parkash, Tarlochan Singh, Dharam Singh, Bakshish Singh, Udham Singh and I formed
the core of the team. Others were equally talented ball players.
The instructions were that all matches would be of a goodwill nature, there would be no show of temper whatsoever among the players, and neither the East Punjab Police team or the West Punjab Police team would play for the result.
The Lahore match was played at the Railway Stadium, in front of a huge crowd - almost like the one we had at Jalandhar during the Asian All Stars match in 1974. West Punjab Police were playing on their home ground, before a cheering crowd and local umpires.
When we lined up for the formal introduction of the teams to the chief guest, West Punjab Police team captain Aziz whispered in my ears, "Balbir, I hope you know that today we are going all out for a result. It's win or lose, that's our order."
I was taken aback. We had not taken the match seriously. We had been loafing around and eating to our heart's content. We were sluggish and heavy-footed. We were in no state of preparedness. Now we had been confronted with this challenge, "Play to win."
I assembled the boys just before the bully-off and told them all about it. I gave them a pep talk, "I don't bother if we lose all our matches back home, even to district teams. But we must not suffer a defeat here."
The boys responded magnificently. We were all moves and all attacks when the match opened. Nothing could stop us that day. We hardly made a mistake, and we were up 3-0 before the interval.
The West Punjab Police team got the message. East Punjab Policemen were wizards. Even the crowd was thrilled as our forwards pierced the rival defence with brilliant criss-crossing moves. The ball stuck to our sticks like paper sticks to gum.
We won comfortably 4-2. I had two goals in the match - both converted off crosses from Ram Swarup, who worked like a Trojan horse on the right wing. I have never seen a team play with such complete understanding as our team did that day.
The Pakistani Police officers were the first to admit that their boys were no match to the skillful Indians. We were elated when spectators jumped the fence to hug and kiss us for our great display.
Bashir Sheikh was on the sidelines that day and he told Ashwini Kumar, "No one can touch India's hockey supremacy as long as you have Balbir in your ranks. He is a complete player, a dream centre-forward."
That was my last visit to Pakistan. All my further interactions with Pakistan were on third country grounds.
Tarlochan, Author and Raghubir with the 1956 Inter-State Police Title