How a mentor's intervention drove India's 'March of Glory' at the 1975 World Cup

Ashok Kumar, son of the legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, will forever go down in history for scoring the winning goal in India's triumph at the 1975 Hockey World Cup final

But what is not very well know is the fact that Ashok Kumar nearly pulled out of the India's World Cup campaign that year.

This and several other fascination anecdotes have now been chronicled in a book penned by hockey historian K Arumugam and journalist Errol D’Cruz.

'March of Glory'

The Indian men’s hockey team etched their name in history when they lifted their maiden World Cup title on March 15, 1975. Fifty years later, a book 'March of Glory' was released on Tuesday to mark the historic triumph.

The book celebrates the Golden Jubilee of the historic achievement and captures that drama around India’s win in Kuala Lumpur after the Indians finished second and third in the previous two editions of the World Cups.

“The 1975 World Cup has a historical significance. After 1964, India did not win any gold, except 1966 Asian Games where they won gold but elsewhere they were winning bronze. And it was not a great thing in those times to win a bronze. Questions were raised in the Parliament with concerns of the decline of hockey. 1975 again gave the belief that hockey is still alive,” Arumugam, founder of One Thousand Hockey Legs (OTHL), told The Bridge.

“Hockey players of those generations were the most honest and humble people. Even today, they recollect everything, minute by minute. It is so engraved in their minds,” he added.

A mentor's intervention

Arumugam shared an interesting insight into legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand’s son Ashok Kumar, who scored the winning goal in the 1975 World Cup.

“Ashok Kumar almost skipped the World Cup, if not for his mentor KD Singh Babu,” he said.

Ashok had committed to a club in Italy and wrote to his mentor KD Singh Babu seeking his blessings. ‘When Hitler offered a job to your father, he refused and chose to serve his country’, a reply that spurred Ashok and he immediately joined the Indian squad.

The 204-page book consists of more such engrossing anecdotes and soul-stirring incidents about the 1975 heroes and more than 250 rare photographs, both on and off the field, from the event.

Ashok Kumar, HJS Chimni, Harbinder Singh, Zafar Iqbal, Vineet Kumar and Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey, along with almost 300 kids from OTHL, among others were present for the release.