When the 1972 Munich Olympics was a few months away, the organisation of the men’s World Cup hockey championship at Barcelona in Spain was great news for the lovers of the game. Till then, the Olympic Games was the only platform where the top hockey playing nations paraded their talent with the stick. But the inaugural World Cup, which was programmed to be held in Pakistan but was shifted to Spain subsequently, provided a new arena for world’s hockey exponents.
As a student in a college at Cuttack, I was trying to follow all the news about the tournament. As there was no television, All India Radio was the only channel through which we could keep ourselves abreast with the results. And followers of the game grabbed at the newspapers for the details.
I remember walking into the AIR station at Madhupur House on Mission Road on the day India was to clash with Pakistan in the semifinal to find out about the match timings and whether AIR would broadcast running commentary of the encounter. A gentleman at the reception was kind enough to give me the commentary timings and I was overjoyed.
The ten teams which participated in the championship, played from October 15 to 24, were split into two pools. India, along with West Germany, Kenya, France and Argentina were grouped in Pool-A while hosts Spain were clubbed in Pool-B with Pakistan, Netherlands, Australia and Japan. The top two finishers in each group moved into the last four. The matches were played on grass.
In the pool games, India maintained a clean slate winning all the four matches to top the group with eight points. India defeated Argentina, France and West Germany by identical 1-0 margins while they beat Kenya 2-0.
Then only two points were awarded for every win. West Germany and Kenya (four points each) finished second in the group with two victories each.
Interestingly, Kenya at that time was a force to reckon with in world hockey and was often referred to as the second team of India as all players in the squad were Sikhs.
In the league tie, Kenya had trounced West Germany 3-0 but since both teams finished on equal points, a replay was ordered to decide who would qualify for the semifinals. In a virtual quarterfinal, Kenya edged out West Germany again 2-1 to qualify for the semifinal.
Spain and Pakistan, registering two wins and a loss each were tied for the top spot in Pool-B.
In the group matches Spain had beaten Pakistan 3-2 while Australia defeated Spain 1-0. In the semifinals, India faced Pakistan and Spain, bolstered by the presence of redoubtable penalty corner expert Juan Amat, played Kenya.
Hockey fans were glued to the radio commentary by Surajit Sen, known for his deep bass voice, in English and the prolific Jasdev Singh in Hindi when the India-Pakistan semifinal began.
Pakistan had several stalwarts in their team which included Munawaruz Zaman, Khalid Mahmood, Islahuddin Siddiqui and Mohammed Shahnaz. But India drew first blood when Rajwinder Singh, picked as a member of the Universities team, pierced the Pak defence to score. But the experienced Pakistan managed to strike the board twice subsequently to emerge 2-1 victors. Indian fans, including me, were crestfallen.
In the other semifinal, Spain edged out Kenya 1-0 to enter the final.
Pakistan beat Spain in the final by a solitary goal scored by Akhtar-ul-Islam to lift the trophy for the first time. India finished third in the tournament by downing Kenya 2-1 in the bronze medal tie.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Bhubaneswar)