When time stood still

It was 1975. India was playing Malaysia for a place in the final of the men’s hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. The host team was leading 2-1. 

With only eight minutes to go, a barely known Pathan, Aslam Sher Khan, was sent in as a substitute for Michael Kindo. As the seconds ticked away, India earned a penalty corner. Team captain Ajit Pal Singh asked Khan to take the hit. He sent the entire nation into raptures by slotting the ball into the goal, past the right side of the Malaysian goalkeeper, Jainuddin. India held on for the remaining three minutes to take the game into extra time.

A few minutes into extra time, Harcharan Singh scored the match-winning goal and India was through to the final. The Indian fight back stunned the home crowd – Merdeka Stadium was filled to the rafters that day – into complete silence. 

Recalling those magical moments, Khan says, “I was a ‘nobody’. Within seconds, I became a ‘somebody’. I wish I had a rewind button so that I could relive that moment all over again.” In any case, it is still fresh in Khan’s mind – the thousands of cheering fans in front of the team’s dressing room jostling to catch a glimpse of their heroes.

Khan remembers that the Malaysian government had barred Indian fans from waving the Tricolour during the match. But after the victory, the official diktat was thrown to the winds and the stadium was swathed in the colours of the Indian flag.

India’s passage to the final of the 1975 World Cup was anything but smooth. The team started like champions by beating England and then thrashing Ghana 7-0. India, however, went down 2-1 to Argentina.

Ashok Kumar, the team’s star forward, recalls, “Our loss to Argentina surprised experts. We were much stronger. However, the defeat, in a sense, helped remove any complacency we might have had going into the subsequent games.”

India played Germany next. It was a do-or-die game. Ashok Kumar recalls, “We drew up a plan to upstage the Germans. Our strategy was to play “cross hits”: the left full-back would pass to the inside right and vice-versa. We not only pierced the German defence but also won by the requisite margin.”

India and Pakistan topped their respective pools. Pakistan outclassed Germany 5-0 in the semi-final. After the victory over Malaysia, the Indian team’s spirits were high. Fans knew that the final clash against arch-rivals Pakistan would be a cracker. It was.

History was not on India’s side. India had won only five matches out of 15 against Pakistan since 1964. Says Ashok Kumar: “When you bounce back from a losing situation, it becomes very difficult to stop you.”

However, this upbeat feeling evaporated within 10 minutes of the start of the match. Islauddin, Pakistan’s mercurial right-winger, put his team in the lead. The fear of losing to Pakistan in a World Cup final haunted the Indians. Some of the senior players were visibly demoralised. Whispers went around that it would now be impossible to beat Pakistan that the match was all but over, that it would be impossible to put it past Pakistan. But Ashok Kumar had other ideas. “I wasn’t there to settle for anything less than the Cup. So I rebuked my teammates and even said a few very harsh words to them,” he says.

After the half-time India started with renewed vigour. “We suddenly realised that Pakistan was yielding ground. This helped us take control of the game,” recalls Ashok Kumar.

Indian full-back Surjit Singh equalised off a penalty corner. And then came the magical goal from the hero of the final, Ashok Kumar. “The pass from VJ Philips was pushed to the inner triangle of the goalpost. The referee took three seconds to declare it a goal,” he says.

It was only after the victorious team reached Singapore that the Indian team got a sense of what it really meant to be the world champions. The players went out shopping and, to their surprise, no shopkeeper was willing to accept any payments from them. They just posed for photographs with the players and sought their autographs. One of the players bought a golf-kit and some others purchased 2-in-one transistors. “The shopkeeper refused to take money from me,” says Aslam Sher Khan.

Goalkeeper Ashok Dewan, who played only in the semi-final and the second half of the final, says, “I was confident we would win. But when we did become the world champs, the feeling was altogether different. We were surrounded by thousands of cheering fans with garlands of flowers. People fell over each other to touch us. These moments are etched in my mind.”

This was, undoubtedly, the biggest day of Ajit Pal Singh’s life. Remind him of the famous line from the blockbuster Chak De India, “70 minute hai tumhare paas. Shayad yeh.. tumhare zindagi ke sab se… khaas sattar minute. Aaj tum achcha khelo ya bura khelo, yeh sattar minute tumhe zindagi bhar yaad rahegi,” his response isn’t surprising.

If a coach, he says, needs to tell his players about the importance of the final, it implies he does know what it means to wear the national jersey and play in a final. A player knows exactly what is expected from him out in the middle…” He adds: “In real life, no team needs such a lecture because when one plays a World Cup final for one’s nation, he gives his very best.”