Dhyan Chand, popularly known as “Hockey Ka Zaadugar”(magician of Indian Hockey) was a three-time Olympic victor and is considered as one the greatest field hockey players of all time.
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The National Sports Day in India is celebrated on August 29 every year to mark the birthday of Dhyan Chand, the legendary hockey player who won gold medals in Olympics for India in the years 1928, 1932 and 1936. These were India’s first three gold medals at The Olympics.
As Modi mentioned in his radio talk that even Bradman was so impressed with Dadda that he compared his phenomenal goal scoring ability to scoring runs in cricket when they met at Adelaide in 1935. With India celebrating the legend’s 111th birth anniversary today as National Sports Day, former hockey stars like Ashok Kumar, Zafar Iqbal, Ajitpal Singh, MK Kaushik, AB Subbaiah, Mohammed Riaz, Ashish Ballal, Mukesh Kumar, and Dilip Tirkey gathered at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi to once again demand the award for the hockey legend.
He scored more than 400 goals in his global career. It nearly appeared too good to be true when the then sports minister, Jitendra Singh, recommended Dhyan Chand’s name for the honour in 2013.
“I will take forward the popular sentiment of giving Bharat Ratna to Major Dhyan Chand“, the Minister said.
The demand for awarding Bharat Ratna for Dadda was ignited in 2011 when the government chose to include sports among the categories which are eligible for the country’s highest civilian award.
Zafar Iqbal, a former captain, said Dhyan Chand has been an inspiration to many and is no less than Muhammed Ali in boxing, Pele in football and Don Bradman in cricket. He is an honoured recipient of second highest civilian honour Padma Bhushan, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and Dronacharya Award among others.
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Sports legends and Dhyan Chand’s fans were quite disappointed when the award was presented to Sachin Tendulkar instead of Dhyan Chand in 2013.
