In a first such initiative, Hockey India (HI) todayfelicitated 34 yesteryear stars of the game with a one-time benefit of Rs twolakhs each for winning gold medals in the previous Olympic Games.
The grand felicitation-cum-Olympic team send-off ceremonywas be held at a city hotel today, where HI provided a common platform for"Golden Greats" of Indian hockey to share their experiences with thepresent players.
Out of the 34 living Olympians to have received the one-timemonetary benefit from the HI coffers, 26 were present on the occasion.
The notable Olympic gold medal winners who were present onthe occasion were Leslie Claudius (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne),Keshav Dutt (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, Jaswant Rajput (1948 London, 1952Helsinki), Raghbir Lal (1948 London, 1956 London) and Harpal Kaushik (1956Melbourne, 1964 Tokyo and silver in 1960 Rome) among others.
S M Ali Syed, Charanjit Singh, Nandy Singh and Balbir SinghSenior gave the function a miss due to health reasons while A S Rana, AllanSheofield, Darshan Singh and Gurdev Singh were out of the country.
During the function, which was also attended by BJP leaderArun Jaitley, Sports Minister Ajay Maken and Indian Olympic Association actingpresident V K Malhotra among others, HI secretary general Narinder Batra saidin future national federation will also honour the Asiad and World Cup winningteams.
Even though it came late, all the former players seemedoverwhelmed by the honour bestowed on them for their achievements.
Member of the 1980 Moscow gold medal-winning team, M MSomaya lauded HI for the initiative.
"It was wonderful to have received the honour after somany years. By this function, HI provided us a platform to meet old friends andformer team-mates," he said.
Somaya's Moscow Olympics teammate Zafar Iqbal expressedsimilar views.
"We were not that keen about the monetary reward butthe honour which was bestowed on us mattered a lot," he said.
Asked the former Olympians about India's chances in theupcoming Olympics, they sounded realistic.
"Our first target should be the semi-finals as wedidn't qualify for semi-finals in Olympics since the last 32 years. I feel thisteam is capable enough to do that," said Gurbux Singh, a gold medallist inthe 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
1980 Moscow Olymics gold-medallist winning team captain VBaskaran added: "I feel we should be happy if we can finish among the top6 teams."
Complete list of players to be felicitated: V Baskaran(Gold-1980 Moscow), Rajinder Singh (Gold-1980 Moscow), B B Chetri (Gold-1980Moscow), Sylvanus Dung Dung (Gold-1980 Moscow), Davinder Singh Garcha(Gold-1980 Moscow), Gurmail Singh (Gold-1980 Moscow), Ravinder Pal (Gold-1980Moscow), M M Somaya (Gold-1980 Moscow), M K Kaushik (Gold-1980 Moscow),Charanjit Kumar (Gold-1980 Moscow), Surinder Singh Sodhi (Gold-1980 Moscow),Mervyn Fernandes (Gold-1980 Moscow), Zafar Iqbal (Gold-1980 Moscow), MohdShahid (Gold-1980 Moscow), Balbir Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico),Dharam Singh Mann ((Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico), Harbinder Singh(Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico; 1972 Munich), Gurbux Singh (Gold-1964Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico), A S Bakshi (Gold-1956 Melbourne), Harpal Kaushik(Gold-1956 Melbourne; 1964 Tokyo; Silver-1960 Rome), Hardayal Singh (Gold-1956Melbourne), R S Bhola (Gold-1956 Melbourne; Silver- 1960 Rome), Raghbir Lal(Gold-1952 Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne), Jaswant Rajout (Gold-1948 London; 1952Helsinki), Keshav Dutt (Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki); Leslie Claudius(Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne), S M Ali Syed (Gold-1964Tokyo), Charanjit Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo; Silver-1960 Rome), G Nandy Singh(Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki), Balbir Singh Senior ((Gold-1948 London; 1952Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne), A S Rana (Gold-1980 Moscow), Allan Sheofield(Gold-1980 Moscow), Darshan Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo), Gurdev Singh (Gold-1980Moscow).
