NZ And Australia Tour-1935

JPEG ImageOn the field he was named the "Wizard of Hockey" for he exerted complete control on the ball. It appeared that the ball used to stick to his hockey stick while playing. So great was the magic of Dhyan Chand that the Tokyo officials broke his hockey stick to search for a magnet inside, and tried to console themselves saying he had added some sort of glue. On one occasion, a lady from the audience asked Dhyan Chand to play with her walking stick instead. He was supposidely so fast that TV analysis of his gameplay was rendered too slow.

JPEG ImageDuring a 1935 tour of New Zealand and Australia, he scored 201 goals out of the team's tally of 584 in 43 matches. Don Bradman and Dhyan Chand once came face to face at Adelaide in 1935, when the Indian hockey team was in Australia. After watching Dhyan Chand in action, Don Bradman remarked "He scores goals like runs in Cricket".

Indian Hockey team in 1935 tour:-
Goalkeepers: T. Blake (Sindh), N. Mukherjee (Bengal)
Backs: Mohammad Hussain (Manavdar), P. Das (Bengal), Rashid Ahmad (Punjab)
Half-Backs: E. Nestor (Bengal), M. N. Masood (Manavdar), M. J. Gopalan (Madras), Mohammad Naim (Punjab)
Forwards: Shahabuddin (Manavdar), Lourie Davidson (Bengal), Dhyan Chand (Army), Roop Singh (Gwalior), Frank Wells (Bengal), P. P. Fernandes (Sindh), Harbail Singh (Punjab)

JPEG ImageIndia played a total of 48 matches on this tour, with 28 in New Zealand and the remainder in India, Ceylon and Australia. In these 48 matches, India scored 584 goals with only 40 goals against us.It was a grand tour inasmuch as India won all the 48 matches that it played, of which Dhyan Chand played in 43 matches, and scored 201 goals. Mind you, on the rain-sodden uneven grounds in New Zealand and Australia, it was no joke to score goals. The grounds in New Zealand were a severe handicap to India's style of play. A through pass or dash or sprint down the line were not easy to do. Most of the time the Indian players had to resort to scoops because of the muddy surface of the grounds.

Sankalp Unit