Authors Errol D’ Cruz, Arumugam talk about their passion for Hockey in their new book ‘March Of Glory’

“I hope this book serves as both a reminder of past glory and a beacon of inspiration for future triumphs,” says Ajit Pal Singh, captain of that victorious Indian hockey team.

Hyderabad: Revisiting the glory days of Indian hockey is never easy given the challenges, primarily in getting hold of authentic data backed by appropriate pictures to depict the true glory.

But, for author Errol D’ Cruz and co-author K. Arumugam, it was more than that – pure joy being die-hard hockey lovers for decades and their book ‘March Of Glory – The Story Of India’s 1975 World Cup Hockey Triumph’ is a testimony to their unbridled passion for the sport.

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“I hope this book serves as both a reminder of past glory and a beacon of inspiration for future triumphs,” says Ajit Pal Singh, captain of that victorious Indian hockey team.

“I preserved literature produced by various national federations, World Cup organisers and FIH periodicals. The collection helped enrich the content and the look and feel of the book which is full of only black and white pictures for obvious reasons and available on Amazon,” says 67-year-old Arumugam.

The magnetic voice of the AIR commentators Melville de Mello and Jasdev Singh in bringing ‘live’ action to millions of Indians back home (no live tv telecast in those days) was truly acknowledged too!

For the record, three-time Olympic gold medallist Balbir Singh Sr was the manager of that team and Gurcharan Singh Bodhi the unobtrusive coach.

Just consider some of the interesting ‘revelations’ in the 200-page book costing Rs. 800 (paperback) and available on Amazon.

Ashok Kumar, who scored the match-winner in the final in front of 70,000 spectators at Merdeka Stadium, almost missed that World Cup having decided to play for a club in Italy before being goaded by K.D. Singh Babu who reminded the way his great father Dhyan Chand rejected a German Army job offer by Adolf Hitler to prefer to play for the country.

Pakistan’s full back Manzoor-ul-Hassan recalls how Balbir Singh Sr and Aslam Sher Khan joined his team bus to offer prayers at Juma Masjid a day before the final.

A letter from 1973 World Cup silver medal winning captain MP Ganesh from Italy reached the Indian team just in time with his inspirational message – ‘Your are second to none” just before the final!

Ashok Diwan, the goalkeeper who brought off so many splendid saves, and Harcharan Singh missed the celebrations because they were ‘random’ picks for dope tests!

Not surprisingly, the Indian hockey team faced music at Madras Airport on arrival with the Customs charging Rs. 50,000 for the cassette recorders and cameras which some of the Indian players bought in Malaysia. Unthinkable of any modern day Indian cricketer facing similar treatment!

By all means, the book is a treasure, especially for the hockey fraternity which needs a reminder, with wonderful reporting of the matches featuring India especially the final were gripping and one could easily visualise the drama unfolding when reading the book for sure.

Arumugam, who co-authored the book thanks to sports historian Gulu Ezekiel’s prompting, makes special mention of the contribution of 80-year-old photographer Ashok Vahie and designer Pragya Srivastava.