Tag Archives: sports

Personalities: Viswanathan Anand

Uncategorized, ,

FIDE World Championship, 2008

Author’s Note: All emphases within quotes are mine. Books by Anand and other chess greats are the principal sources for this article.

 

Bonn, Germany, October 2008. Anand will play Vladimir Kramnik for the world chess title. The victor would become the undisputed champion, succeeding Garry Kasparov, who retired in 2005. Anand has to figure out a way to throw the brilliant Kramnik off his solid game and decides to risk it all. He’s searching for the spark of inspiration before his most important challenge since his 1995 World Trade Center showdown with Kasparov.

In a flash of brilliance, Anand abandons his favored 1.e4 opening to play his opponent’s signature 1.d4. This decision was a ‘gut’ call from within that was all wrong in a conventional sense. Though the opening pushed Vishy outside his comfort zone, he believed it would unsettle his opponent even more. It proved successful. Winning the Bonn finals, Anand once again became the world champion.

The western nations have dominated the global chess scene for the past century. Soviet chess players reigned supreme from the 1940s, a time when chess prowess symbolized peak intellectual and strategic dominance. Anand’s journey to the top of chess was unlike any other among his peers. India, the birthplace of chess (Chaturangam), was without a grandmaster until Vishy.

Anand was the one who changed everything.

Anand’s book is available at leading bookstores.

Padma Vibhushan Viswanathan Anand, or ‘Vishy’ as he is known affectionately around the world, is India’s greatest chess player and the original ‘lightning kid’. India’s first grandmaster. First Asian to claim the world’s classic chess title. The best ever rapid chess player. The first to wrest the title from the renowned Soviet chess factory after Bobby Fischer’s Cold War W against Spassky in 1972. The only champion to win the classic chess crown in three different formats: knockout event, 8-player double-round robin, and a final match. His legacy is equally amazing. He has inspired an entire generation of young Indians to take up chess and make a global impact. At the time of writing this article, two Asians, Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju (also from Tamil Nadu) and Ding Liren from China, compete for the top prize.

Vishy has won a total of 10 world titles in three different categories: classic chess (5 titles), rapid chess (3 titles), and the chess world-cup (2 titles). He’s won several other major tournaments, as well as the de facto (pre-FIDE) world rapid chess championship (Frankfurt/Mainz) many, many times. He’s the inaugural recipient of the Khel Ratna award, India’s top sports honor. Unsurprisingly, he figures in conversations about India’s top three sporting achievers alongside the field hockey wizard, Dhyan Chand, and the cricketing phenom, Sachin Tendulkar.

Vishy, the nice guy next door, the lightning-fast king of 64 squares, trailblazer.

The Lightning Kid

Anand’s birthplace was Mayavaram (now Mayiladuthurai), Tamil Nadu, where he was born on December 11, 1969. Mayiladuthurai’s history is reflected in its many beautiful Kovils (Hindu temples). Anand is the youngest in a family of three children. Thiru. Viswanathan, his father, was employed by the Indian Railways. His mother Smt. Susheela came from a family of lawyers who played chess regularly at home.

Following a family move to Madras (Chennai), Anand completed his education. At six, Anand’s mother introduced him to chess, greatly impacting his early development as a chess player. He joined the Mikhail Tal chess club in Alwarpet, which was mostly frequented by older people. The club’s co-founder was Manuel Aaron, India’s only International Master at the time. There were no chess grandmasters in India. Anand’s mother signed him up for every tournament the club held, which led to his becoming a dedicated chess player.

Anand moved with his parents to Manila in November 1978 as his father was contracted to do some work with the Philippines railways. His parents took him to the Baguio City venue of the exciting Karpov-Kasparov world chess final, which had concluded weeks before. Years later, he’d win the world junior championship at that same location.

In Manila, Anand and his mother would follow a chess TV show featuring top players’ games. Each episode challenged viewers to solve a chess puzzle and send in their answers by mail. A chess book would be the winner’s prize. Anand won so much the TV show producers gave in, offering him their whole chess library if he’d stop sending them mail. They returned to Madras in 1980.

By age 11, Anand had mastered the rapid ‘blitz’ chess games at the club, consistently defeating most opponents in the popular fast-paced format. Thus began the legend of the ‘lightning kid’. Despite his rising fame, his high school maths teacher, S. Lourduraj, in a Time Magazine report, remembers Anand as being gentle with classmates and respectful to his teachers. 1981 is the year he remembers playing his last chess game with his mother. His mother won.

Picture from Anand’s book ‘Mind Master’.

As a boy, Anand was fascinated by the story of the Ganita genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan. He had read his biography and later, he could also relate to his struggles. Their paths are strikingly similar. Ramanujan’s groundbreaking contributions, achieved without formal mathematical education, kept leading mathematicians occupied for decades. Kumbakonam, under 40 kilometers from Mayiladuthurai, was Ramanujan’s hometown.

In 1983, Anand emerged victorious in the national sub-juniors competition. By then, he had already beaten the nine-time national champion and his Chennai mentor, Manuel Aaron, on two separate occasions. Among the wins was one at the national team championship. Financially strapped, his teen team, the Madras Colts, found a sponsor in legendary playback singer S.P. Balasubramanyam garu. Anand secured his IM norm, then, before he was sixteen and still in tenth grade, he became the national chess champion. He narrowly missed the GM norm in the year 1986. Unaided by any formal system, he became India’s first grandmaster in Coimbatore in 1988. Having conquered domestic competition, he aimed for international success.

"As an Indian, I didn’t know what being a globally successful chess player meant because no one had walked down that road." - Viswanathan Anand.

Anand gained a reputation as a speedy player. Canadian-Russian player Evgeny Bareev remarked that Anand had a unique ability to see more on the board than most other players could in the first minute of play. In the international circuit, his challenge was to learn and continually improve by analyzing the games between top players.

Chess, originally chaturangam, was invented in India and was used to teach strategy to young princes.

In India, by the 1970s, chess was unfortunately reduced to just another pastime board game. Chess even symbolized political and cultural decay. The 1977 movie ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’ by Satyajit Ray portrays two chess-obsessed noblemen engrossed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding events. It was a world apart from modern New India. There was no system in place to train players. For example, Dibyendu Barua was another promising junior player of the 1980s. He had the talent (India’s second grandmaster) but could not make the leap to the international stage.

Let’s examine this example. Anand received a computer in Europe in 1987 to help him prepare for chess. His application to bring it home took 8 months for New Delhi to process and approve. Then, the Chennai customs added another layer of difficulty, slapping a 250% duty on the item. Outside pressure and media attention helped him finally bring it home.

His B.Com graduation from Chennai coincided with a world ranking of fifth place for him. To compete in Europe’s top tournaments and cut down on travel costs from India, he moved to Madrid. He went pro circa 1993-94, and his ranking climbed throughout the 90s. Anand narrates an interesting incident that occurred just after he turned pro: “On a train journey to Kerala, a well-meaning gentleman sitting by me asked me what I did for a living. When I responded that I played chess, he smiled and offered that it wasn’t a secure career. ‘Not unless you are Viswanathan Anand,’ he concluded. I listened and nodded sagely, and didn’t confess to being the person he was referring to. It is a compliment I still hold dear.”

Anand versus the Soviet Machine

It is important to understand the nature of the multi-dimensional challenges that Anand faced in the first half of his career.

Anand played in a 1991-92 Italian ‘Super Grandmaster’ tournament where the rest (nine of them) were all top Soviet players. Anand triumphed in the tournament, beating out chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. Symbolically, halfway through the tournament, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. By 1995, he had earned a match against Garry Kasparov for the world title.

"I always felt that I had the advantage in calculation over anyone except the Indian star Viswanathan Anand, who was justly famous for his speedy tactical play." - Garry Kasparov.

The Anand-Kasparov contest attracted worldwide attention. No non-Soviet origin player had reached the top after Bobby Fischer in 1972. Here was a contender who was completely outside the Soviet/European system. He learned his chess in a largely unstructured environment. He used his speed, sharp board sense, and ability to thrive in chaos to his advantage.

In contrast to the era’s stereotypical sullen and egotistical genius grandmasters, Anand was refreshingly different. Regular guy Anand’s interests included Monty Python and Pet Shop Boys’ music. “Anand wasn’t some arrogant brat; sure, he was self-confident, but he had a healthy sense of humour and was quite prepared to laugh at his own mistakes.”

Anand’s chess game diverged from the robust and orderly school of Soviet chess that was built on decades of top-tier experience, a human bank of domain expertise, and the mastering of theory. Eastern Europe and Russia have produced some of the world’s best pure mathematicians. Anand faced a chess dynasty renowned for their winning strategies and ability to avoid losses in protracted championship battles. It was Anand versus the machine.

The challenges Anand faced before the internet are fully revealed in his autobiographical book. Initially, the Soviets wrote him off as a mere ‘coffee house player’. The ‘upstart’ with an unpronounceable surname (which the west mistook as his ‘first’ name, which is Anand), from an unknown part of India. In the pre-internet days, Anand used faxes to receive chess information and updates on major games from his friends in Europe. He recalls “The Soviet Union, so far, was in a yawning lead over the rest of the world when it came to chess–in experience and expertise–and access to information from there was considered the Holy Grail… The closer to the inner circle you were (in this case, Moscow), the greater the quantum of information and the finest expertise that you had at your disposal..”

In the US-USSR Cold War, a chess master turned spy embodied the quintessential movie villain from the other side of the Iron Curtain.

On the surface, chess seems calm, yet it can develop into a fierce mental struggle with unseen consequences. You don’t just make ‘mistakes’ on the board, you commit ‘blunders’. The original ‘chaturanga’ in Sanskrit denotes the four limbs of a military formation in ancient India.

Each of the prior battles for the world crown, including Fischer-Spassky, Karpov-Korchnoi, and Kasparov-Karpov, were all high-voltage drama fueled by politics, intrigue, and gamesmanship. Bobby Fischer openly relished the moment he broke his opponent’s ego. Soviet-era players were brilliant, tough, and battle-hardened survivors. For example, Garry Kasparov said this about Viktor Korchnoi: “he enjoyed grabbing a pawn even if it meant weathering a brutal attack. A man who had survived the Siege of Leningrad as a boy was not going to be intimidated at the chessboard.”

The original World Trade Center’s 107th floor observation deck hosted the Anand-Kasparov match. The first eight games ended in a draw. When asked about this, Anand famously told journalists, “It’s not rock and roll“. Winning the ninth game, he took the lead and thrilled his Indian fans. The remaining games went downhill. Vishy lacked championship preparation experience, and his game became predictable, leaving him exposed in the backend of the championship.

Utilizing computer-based preparation, a first for Kasparov’s team, would provide an advantage if Anand repeated a pattern. Kasparov, in his own words, was relieved when Anand did just that, and end was swift. Many consider Kasparov the greatest chess player ever, and Anand almost dethroned him but fell short. In his own words: “Frankly, I was not ready for a match of that magnitude. At the time, computers were nowhere close to performing the way they do now and the match taught me how much I had left to learn. Looking back, I’d say the volume of preparation I did through the match is perhaps what I do now in a day’s time.”

AI-powered data analysis of every world championship game (1886-2023) reveals the 1995 edition as the most accurate ever. It had the fewest ever missed points by either player.

Anand uniquely remained a top chess contender from the 1990s (pre-internet) through the 2010s (computerized chess). The impact of experience is diminished now, Anand notes, because of powerful software, hardware, and large databases facilitating comprehensive opponent-specific preparation. His lack of experience and Soviet chess school background put him at a disadvantage in the 1990s, a time when these factors were crucial. They could turn the contest into one around the openings and put Anand at a disadvantage through ‘opening pressure’.

IBM Deep Blue’s 1997 chess victory over Kasparov stunned the world, marking the dawn of the machine age. Anand realized that powerful computers could negate the Soviet machine’s advantage. He mastered computer-driven preparation through hard work and a significant learning curve. He reaped the rewards, whereas older players such as Karpov had more difficulty adapting. Anand outplayed Karpov 5-1 in a one-on-one human + computer contest held in 1999. Technology has steadily improved the accuracy of the championship finals over time, reducing errors. Today’s computing power has made chess much more accessible, and we’re seeing top players from all over the world.

The Tiger of Madras

“Thambi kaisa? tiger jaisa. Tiger kaisa? Vice versa!”

Madras is famous for two tigers. One is the soldier of the Madras regiment, the thambis of India’s storied and oldest infantry unit. The other is Anand, although he was not a big fan of this sobriquet: “The thing with the tiger was an invention by some journalist who probably could not think of any other Indian animal. Normally I avoid conflict, and I am indeed not a killer like Kasparov.” As a fan, I’d say the tiger is India’s pride; majestic, spirited, fast, and a master of the chaotic jungle.

Anand married Aruna in 1996 who took over the ‘baton of handling everything in his life, apart from chess’. With championship experience under his belt and the support of Aruna, Anand’s chess grew stronger.

From Anand’s book: ‘Mind Master’.

The chess world was being torn apart by politics and bias. Players like Anand who did not belong to any faction endured a tough time. A knockout tournament supplanted the candidates tournament in 1997-98 to determine the World Championship challenger. Only three days following that tournament, the victor would contend with Karpov for the global championship. Both Kasparov and Kramnik pulled out since this gave an undeserved privilege to Karpov. Anand won the tournament, needing to arrive at the championship venue within 3 days. He recalls “We somehow managed to get ourselves on a plane and landed in Lausanne, only to learn that FIDE had booked all its officials into hotel rooms but had made no provision whatsoever to accommodate the winner of the 21-day-long knockout tournament that was a qualifier for the final. Once again, we were left to wage a logistics battle on our own“.

Despite the tough conditions, Anand’s brilliant final performance, including a comeback to force a tie, was tragically ended by a rapid chess tie-breaker loss. In his words, it was like being asked to “run a 100-metre sprint after completing a cross-country marathon.” The ex-Soviet player made matters worse by questioning Anand’s championship-winning ability, despite the huge advantage he had created for himself. By 2000, his arch rival (and friend) Kramnik defeated Kasparov for the world title. While Anand came close to overcoming two of the Soviet system’s all-time best, he remained without an ‘undisputed’ world title.

Kramnik once said that all pros know this about chess: you can play well, even beat Anand, but avoiding time trouble is impossible.

Having won the Y2K FIDE knockout chess championship, Anand challenged Shirov, another former Soviet Union player with a past victory over Kramnik. The final was held in Tehran and Shirov was no match for Anand in the finals. Anand finally became a World Champion. Anand was at his best in the 2000s. His decisive win against Kramnik in Bonn during 2007, following Kasparov’s 2005 retirement, stands out.

The final match in 2010 against Veselin Topalov, held in Bulgaria (a nation previously part of the Soviet bloc), stands out as another remarkable event. Amid a Europe-wide volcanic storm that grounded flights, Anand’s team had to journey across 4 countries and 2000 kilometers. There was not much help from the tournament organizers. To reach the venue, Anand and his team had a race against time, traveling by road and even taking a ferry. A Bulgarian police officer pulled them over for speeding, and exclaimed, ‘Ah, you’re Vishy Anand? You’re the guy we are searching for; please don’t drive as fast as you play!.’ Anand and his team had spent more than 40 hours on the road to reach their location three days before the first match. To worsen the situation, it was revealed that Topalov used a 112-core computer cluster with state-of-the-art chess software, compared to Vishy’s basic 8-core machines. Anand could only imagine the kind of edge such computing power would offer. The same system was not made available to Anand.

Anand came up with a strategy to negate his opponent’s strength: play non-computer chess and land the first punch. He went back to his strengths and relied on spontaneity and surprise by mixing things up unpredictably. This would reduce Topalov’s computational advantage; no predictable patterns would exist for planning or exploiting in later games.

The game area was also a site of psychological warfare. Anand later learned that his team had to employ an undercover agent to screen their hotel rooms for listening devices or cameras planted by his opposition. In a remarkable turn of events, past rivals Kasparov and Kramnik offered to help Vishy through video calls and notes. Anand recalls this contest as a battle between a ‘human cluster’ versus ‘computing cluster’. The evenly balanced contest was heading towards a rapid-chess tie-break. Topalov, sensing Anand’s advantage in a rapid chess shootout, gambled, overextended, and lost. Anand successfully retained his title.

Return of the King

Anand successfully defended his title once again in Moscow in 2012 against Boris Gelfand of Russia. During his meeting with Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, he revealed that he learned chess early on at Chennai’s Mikhail Tal club. Putin remarked, ‘Oh, so you’re a problem we brought upon ourselves!’

Anand had reached his peak. Over the next two cycles in 2013-14, Anand lost his title to Norway’s Magnus Carlsen (considered by many to be the greatest ever). Carlsen forced Anand to play ‘dry and bloodless’ positions and long games that Anand found difficult to manage. Interestingly, Anand picks his 2013 Tata-Steel Group- A game against Levon Aronian as the best game he’s ever played. “Every player goes on to create that one thing of absolute, peerless beauty. This one was mine.”

From Anand’s book: Mind Master.

 

Anand had one last, impressive move remaining, however. Nearing age 50, he almost skipped the 2017 Rapid Chess Championship in Riyadh, but his wife Aruna felt he had nothing to lose: “Apidi enna thaan aagum?” (what’s the worst that could happen?). Twenty-two years after his first duel with Kasparov, the Tiger of Madras turned back the clock and played fearless chess to win the rapid chess crown. He defeated Magnus Carlsen enroute to an undefeated tournament performance.

A recent study of over one billion moves of top-players used AI to analyze the data from all world championship games between 1886-2023. It reveals Anand’s ‘Game Intelligence’ is second only to Carlsen’s. Anand also has the best accuracy in these contests, as measured by the lowest Game Point Loss (GPL) among all players. Combine this accuracy with his naturally fast game that was entirely self-taught, and we get an idea of what a phenomenal player he is.

Peak chess performance, much like in other sports, decreases with age. Even at 50 (in 2019), Anand’s high ranking was noteworthy. He remains involved with the game today. He spends more time with his son Akhil who was born in 2011. “Mind Master,” by Anand, offers incredible perspectives on his thought process and decision-making, which can be beneficial to everyone. He uses public speaking to share his learning and experiences, and works with ‘Olympic Gold Quest,’ an Indian non-profit organization for aspiring Olympians.

Here’s an incomplete list of awards won by Viswanathan Anand. Here’s a list of all major tournaments and championship performances. In 2007, he received India’s second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan.

From Anand’s book: Mind Master.

A generation of young Indian chess players found inspiration in Anand’s achievements. But, according to Anand himself, he’s there not to preach boring nostalgic sermons but to share his learning and experiences. Winning double gold at the 2024 Chess Olympiad signifies India’s remarkable progress in chess, a stark contrast to the era when Viswanathan Anand was the lone player. More and more Indian players are achieving ELO ratings above 2700, and even 2800. To this day, Anand maintains his deep love for chess, stating, “the root of the matter remains that I like playing chess. It’s the warm, familiar feeling I circle back to every time.”

Truly a Bharat Ratna.

References

Viswanathan Anand and Susan Ninan. Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion’s Life. Hachette India. 2022.

Garry Kasparov. Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins. John Murray Press. 2017.

Vishy Anand and John Nunn. Vishy Anand: World Chess Champion (Chess World Champions). Gambit Publications. 2012.

Mehmet S. Ismail. Human and Machine Intelligence in n-Person Games with Partial Knowledge: Theory and Computation. Arxiv.org. Revised, 2024.

Steve Wulf. A New High for Chess. Time Magazine. 1995.

 

 

 

 

Personalities: Dhanraj Pillay

Uncategorized,

source @prasarbharati

Introduction

Field Hockey is India’s national sport and Dhanraj Pillay (தன்ராஜ் பிள்ளை), between 1989 and 2004, represented Indian hockey with distinction and passion. The story of his rise from a most humble background to become the world’s most recognized hockey player at his peak is inspirational. More than any other sportsperson, a study of Dhanraj Pillay’s personality on and off the field offers valuable insight into the Indian sporting scene of that era.

"Dhanraj's career has been intimately interwoven with India's victories and defeats in the last two decades. His failures were India's failures and his triumphs were India's triumphs." - Ric Charlesworth, foreword to Dhanraj Pillay's biography.

 

A main source of information for this post is Sports Journalist Sundeep Misra’s independent biography of Dhanraj Pillay. This book is a must-read for all supporters of Kreeda for it is as much a story of Indian men’s hockey as it is of Dhanraj Pillay.

Early Life

Dhanraj Pillay was born on July 15, 1968 in Khadki, Maharashtra near Pune in a Tamil family. His mother Andalamma and father Nagalingam worked hard to keep the household going. His father was employed by the nearby ammunition factory. Life was tough for Dhanraj, the youngest of four sons. He was not academically gifted although his teachers at the Sugra Vilasi Sabha school recall a student who quietly listened to their scolding and never talked back. Khadki had a strong local tradition of hockey and soon, a young Dhanraj would tie up broken sticks with gunny bag string and glue them together to fashion a working hockey stick and play. His academic grades were poor but ‘Dhan’ was a born athlete. Few then realized that the same Dhanraj would, one day, in India colors, slice through oppositions like a toofan on the hockey field.

Khadki Ammunition Factory Ground where young Dhanraj learned hockey (source: https://bdnarayankaratsakaltimes.blogspot.com/2007/05)

First Break

The story is that Dhanraj got the first major break in his hockey career through Vidhi. Dhanraj got into a local fight during the Ganapati festival and felt that the police there may be looking for him. At this time his brother Ramesh who worked in Mumbai wanted him to come there, and Dhanraj was only too glad to oblige. His brother played hockey for a club, and his team was a player short and Dhanraj’s name was added as a sub. He was immediately noticed, and soon, he was playing for Mahindra & Mahindra thanks to coach Joaquim Carvalho, and joined them as a Jr. Assistant. By 1987, he made his name at the national level. He represented Bombay in style, winning the nationals, and was penned down in the list of probables for the Asia cup in 1989. Dhanraj Pillay made his international debut against China in December, a month after the debut of another sportsperson from Maharashtra, Sachin Tendulkar. Both went on to have the longest careers in Indian colors in their respective sporting disciplines. Sachin played Six World cups and 200 Test Cricket matches while Dhanraj competed in four Olympics, World Cups, Champions Trophy, and Asian Games.

Picture link: sportskeeda

Toofan: Early International Career (1989-94)

Dhanraj made his presence felt on the field in the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing with his speed and skill. His outspoken nature also became evident when he questioned the selection of an injured player of repute. Dhanraj himself feels he grabbed a regular position in the Indian team due to his success in a European tour before the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, winning the man of the series honors against England. Dhanraj enjoyed his first Olympic experience in Spain and recalls meeting tennis stars Monica Seles and Stefan Edberg in the Olympic village.

Within four years of his debut, Dhanraj cemented his place in the Indian team. At his best, none could beat him when it came to speed-stickwork-stamina as he raced downfield sporting his shoulder-length hair style. He captured the imagination of hockey fans inside and outside India. In the 1994 World Cup in Sydney, the highly rated Dutch team had to physically stop him several times and eventually walked away winners in a close contest. This was the first of many international tournaments in that era where India would play the most artistic, skillful, and eye-catching hockey but fall short when it came to the final scoreline. At the end of his first World Cup experience, an already fit Dhanraj realized the value of taking that fitness to a higher level. His quality and skill attracted the attention of top European hockey leagues, and his experience there further honed his on-field ability.

Hockey Superstar Dhanraj Pillay (1995-2000)

Dhanraj Pillay was at his best during these years.  Three tournaments in particular are worth a deeper look. One took Dhanraj to a peak of success and mass popularity, while the other two brought ultimate despair.

1995 South Asian Federation (SAF) Games Final
"It has been a dream of every hockey fan to see Dhanraj in full flight. That evening, whoever was inside the stadium would never forget the class of Dhanraj Pillay" -Sundeep Misra.

 

December is a peak of the traditional Kutcheri season in Chennai. Rasikas from all over the world converge to listen to India’s divine Carnatic Sangeetam. In the December of ’95, a young maestro held his own concert in the hockey field at Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.

India vs Pakistan, the reigning World Champion. Pakistan had a star-studded line up including the brilliant Shahbaz Ahmed and Tahir Zaman. The stadium was house-full long before the match started packed with cheering locals. Thousands more waited outside trying to sneak in. Dhanraj did not disappoint them. He was on fire that day, showing an ability to clinically finish in addition to precision passing, perfect teamwork, on top of his trademark speed and skill. Cheered loudly by the Chennai crowd, he scored a hat-trick to defeat the World Champs. Final score line: 5-2. This was the stuff of dreams.  Dhanraj may have been born in Maharashtra but that day he was ‘Enga Veettu Pillay’, another superstar who made Indians and Tamizhs proud. Dhanraj himself recalled that match decades later, noting how he was always marked for physical treatment by the Pakistani defenders who feared his speed and skills (Pakistani coach’s order to his players: “‘woh kaale ko pakdo“). Dhanraj’s international career truly blossomed after this success.

1998 Commonwealth Games Semifinals. Kuala Lumpur.

The Commonwealth games was another golden chance for India to win an international hockey medal. India was pitted against the hosts in the semifinal and it should’ve been a relatively easy task to beat Malaysia. Sundeep Misra notes the Malaysian fan’s respect for the Indian team that won the 1975 World Cup there. Also, hockey fans among Malaysia’s sizable Tamizh population showed up in large numbers. The stage was set for Dhanraj and India. Inexplicably, India lost that match as well as the Bronze medal playoff afterward.

Tom Alter, Indian actor and hockey fan, summed up the performance of the Indian hockey team and its captain in this fine piece of sports writing. India should have won this match hands down (8-0 per the Aussie coach) given the exquisite quality of play that totally outclassed the opposition. And yet they lost:

“India played 75 minutes of the most beautiful hockey you will see played in your lifetime – 75 minutes of art and skill and speed and stamina... the gods are unbelievably cruel – to allow a team to promise so much, and then snatch away from them the victory they so fully deserved.

Who knows this better than Dhanraj Pillai, captain of the Indian hockey team. Lying flat on his back, arms flung wide, eyes closed in unbearable grief and fatigue. That one image of Dhanraj stretched out on the pitch tells a story so personal and so universal. Of one man’s pride and passion being humbled by the whims and fancies of the gods.

The next day he rose again to play England in the bronze medal game, and in one breathtaking move, Dhanraj Pillai dodged seven – yes seven – English players in the ‘D’ before sprawling in the cruelest of dives in front of the English goal, the ball going wide. And, of course, India did not win the bronze. India was simply the second-best team in Kuala Lumpur, and we did not even get the bronze.”

This was not all. Sundeep Misra records a shocking event that occurred in this India-Malaysia match. It appears that the Indian Hockey Federation Secretary and fellow Tamizh Jothikumaran barged into the team meeting at half-time and angrily blamed captain Dhanraj Pillay for missing too many chances. This upset the captain no end, who hit back with the choicest Tamil abuses before hurling his India shirt and stick down in frustration and despair. One need not imagine the impact on Dhanraj’s and the team’s performance in the second half. What were Jothikumaran’s reasons behind this bizarre half-time provocation? Has anyone asked this question in public? In 2008, Jothikumaran was caught on camera allegedly accepting bribes and quit in disgrace.

Why does this tragic scene of officials humiliating athletes replay again and again? When will the public take to task India’s mediocre hockey administrators who just keep changing head-coaches while clinging on like limpets themselves? How could Team-India be expected to perform consistently within such a setup?  Foreign coaches knew exactly how to beat India. Korean coach Kim Sang-Ryul whose team would be India’s nemesis two years later in Sydney pinpointed India’s fundamental weakness in 1998 (ref: Sundeep Misra’s book). The statement also reveals how Indian hockey can become world-beaters again:

Yet, if we momentarily set aside the all-important team goal of winning matches, we can read Sundeep Misra quoting a German fan who wished that his team would be the World Champion while playing the Indian style of hockey- Indic Hockey. Hidden here is the story of how Europe mechanized hockey and eroded its artistic value for short term gain. Hurriedly bringing artificial turf into the Olympics and thereafter spearheading a slew of rule changes that all but killed the original beauty of the sport and alienated large sections of hockey’s diverse fan base. Results aside, India was a team and Dhanraj the star that fans worldwide still turned up to watch.

2000 Sydney Olympics. India versus Poland. Final pool match.

26th September, 2000. India had already done all the hard work, playing exceptionally well against all the top teams in their group-B pool matches, beating two solid teams- Argentina and Spain and drawing against powerhouse Australia, with a sole loss to Korea. The Indian contingent was on a high, knowing that a win over the low-ranked Poland team would guarantee them a place in the semifinals. Poland was already out of contention for the medal rounds. Man for man, Poland was no match for the Indian team. For Dhanraj, an Olympic medal would be the perfect reward for an amazing 12-year career. This was India’s best chance of winning an Olympic medal in 20 years after the Moscow edition of 1980 under the captaincy of their coach V. Bhaskaran. In fact, it would’ve been a bigger achievement since that 1980 field hockey competition was completely diluted after 9 of the 12 qualifying nations, including all top teams that belonged to the Western bloc, withdrew.

Nine times of ten, India would’ve beaten Poland but no European team ever beats itself.  Sundeep Misra describes the sequence of events in vivid detail. India missed many chances in a goal-less first half but eventually went up 1-0 thanks to a 53rd minute goal via a Dhanraj pass. The last ten minutes of the match produced the stuff of nightmares for every Indian hockey fan. Team-India’s mental fragility became evident when a completely unnecessary yellow card infraction reduced India to 10 men in the 59th minute, forcing them into defense. Poland played smart hockey and began to attack. Not staying in the moment and looking too far ahead before the match was even played was costing India.

Despite all this, Team-India was within a minute of sealing the match. Dhanraj recalls that the Korean team watching from the stands left the stadium believing that they were eliminated -only to learn later that India conceded a 69th minute goal. Indian goalkeeper Jude Menezes will forever remember the sound of ball hitting board. Despite Dhanraj’s last minute desperate heroics where he almost scored, India was out of time and luck. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. India knew before the match began that a draw would be insufficient. It tied Korea on points and goal differential, but were eliminated as their sole loss came against them.  Team India, and Dhanraj in particular, was devastated. Sundeep Misra captured those poignant moments after the match for posterity and no Indian sports fan who reads his words will be able to forget them.

“… Dhanraj, the player, who would trade away his 12-year old career for a shot at an Olympic medal! In that moment, I saw the entire spectrum of Indian sport in front of me. Indian sports officials shopping in Sydney while Pillay held on to his dream, match after match.

I saw an Indian official wearing an Indian Olympic blazer scalping tickets of the India-Poland match. And I saw Pillay carry on match after match.

I saw the Indian Hockey Federation officials taking the Olympics as a free trip abroad, dining and eating at the best places, while Pillay kept his dreams alive.

Today while Pillay shed tears, trying to pick up the pieces of his golden dream, there was nobody there, except for Harendra and a mobile phone….

When those dreams shatter, you cry alone“.

Decades later, the pain still lingers in Team-India.  Dhanraj is not off the mark when he blames politics and officialdom for the loss.

“that one minute haunts each of us even today” – Vasudevan Bhaskaran, coach.

“It was one of the best teams India has ever had. And we were all on top of our games, playing beautiful hockey. But all we are remembered for that last-minute collapse against a team with virtually no hockey history.” -Jude Menezes, goal keeper.

“That name, Sydney, will always be a scar. I don’t think I will ever get over it. And as time goes by, it will probably get worse” – Dhanraj Pillay.

Perhaps this September memory will fade away when Indian hockey wins an Olympic medal again.

A Storm Blows Over (2001-2004)

Despite the Sydney heartbreak, his fitness, skill, and a hunger to represent India pushed Dhanraj to play on for many more years and make significant contributions. He would go on to win individual laurels in international events, but a major trophy outside Asia continued to elude the team. Dhanraj Pillay retired after one final shot at Olympic glory in Athens, 2004. His career finished in acrimony, fighting India’s petty hockey administrators to the bitter end. A newly hired Videshi coach named Gerhard Rach deliberately benched Dhanraj Pillay, India’s greatest player in a generation, in his final international game. This was a relegation playoff for the 7th-8th place with Korea. India was comfortably leading  in the 58th minute when a player got injured. Rach played Dhanraj but did not let him finish the last ten minutes. Instead, he took Dhanraj off the field after 90 seconds.  August 27, 2004 was Dhanraj’s last day in Indian colors.

“I pray to God that no player goes through the things I faced after fifteen years of service to the country” – Dhanraj Pillay the toofan, signed off.

The Indian men’s hockey team did not qualify for the 2008 Olympics. Dhanraj continues to be associated with India’s national sport after retirement. He remains optimistic about Team-India’s success in Olympic hockey to this day. The men’s hockey team is ranked #5 at the time of the writing of this article.

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will mark 20 years since Sydney-2000 and 40 years after Moscow-1980. The Hockey Qualifiers for the Tokyo games involving India will be hosted in India between November 1-3, 2019. The draw will be announced in a day (September 9) live on the FIH Facebook page.

About Dhanraj

Those who’ve played hockey at any level would know how difficult and physically demanding the sport is. A key feature of Dhanraj Pillay was his sustained speed with the ball. This article records Dhanraj’s incredible pace, covering 100m in 11.6 seconds while moving the ball forward. Sundeep Misra has noted the observations by international players, fans, and sports journalists about Dhanraj Pillay’s game and approach.

Sukhbir Singh Grewal, Asst. Coach, Indian hockey team, 1992 Barcelona Olympics: when it came to speed, skill, and endurance, Dhanraj was the best of his generation.

Dr. Richard Charlesworth: As an outstanding player of his generation, Dhanraj had most of the qualities of a champion – speed, wonderful movement and fluency, quick and deceptive stick-work, play-reading ability, courage and intense passion for the game.

Balbir Singh Sr (triple Olympic gold medalist): a super star whose career has been interspersed with brilliant performances and unseemly scenes. It is for the readers to decide whether they want their wards to be crowd-pullers or medal-winners.

S. Thyagarajan (Deputy Sports Editor, The Hindu newspaper): Dhanraj is a character who cannot easily be showcased in a straight-jacket. He is beyond definition, complex, controversial, inexplicably humane on occasions, clearly confounding admirers and critics alike.

Sundeep Misra offers several views of Dhanraj after closely covering his career from start to finish.

  • “All he wanted was respect“.
  • “nobody could play for India with the kind of passion and devotion that Dhanraj displayed“.
  • “He was still their hero. Dhanraj Pillay was the player everybody came to watch” – Athens Olympics, 2004.

Key Career Statistics

International Timeline: December 1989 – August 2004.

International Games – 339

International Goals-170

Olympics- 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004.

World Cup- 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002.

Champions Trophy- 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003.

Asian Games- 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 (also Asia cups).

Winning Captain: Asian Games – 1998, Asia Cup – 2003.

Captaincy Record: Played 66, Won 33.

Top Goal Scorer for India: 1994, 1996, 1998.

Player of the Tournament: Champions Trophy, 2002.

Awards
  • Arjuna Award (1995)
  • Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (1999)
  • Padma Shri (2001).
  • Bharat Gaurav (East Bengal Football Club, 2017).

The Inner Field

Some coaches and former players have commented on the one missing piece in Dhanraj Pillay’s game – mental poise and equanimity. That this deficiency also characterized many other Indian internationals indicates a systemic problem. Sundeep Misra points out some famous names that shied away from the responsibility of taking the strokes in high-pressure penalty shootouts. In limited overs cricket too, until the Mahendra Singh Dhoni era, Indian stars generally preferred to make their runs up the order rather than willingly put their hand up at the death where there is no place to hide a failure and opportunities to shine are infrequent.

Virtually every top professional sportsperson including hockey players have stated that team sport at the highest level is a mental game as much as it is physical. A good team invariably has a core group of ‘team-first’ leaders blessed with a level-headed situational awareness. This helps in establishing trust and self-belief within the team, the magic grease that ensures that all moving parts synchronize to exhibit a united grace under pressure.

The Dharma of Collaboration

Sundeep Misra’s book covers so many instances of India displaying the highest skill and fighting spirit but losing tight matches, either failing to defend the last few minutes (like Sydney) or squandering tons of scoring opportunities (like Kuala Lumpur). All point to a lack of mental poise and coherence. He remarks: “Mentally, it was always seen, they could never lift themselves into winning positions. The most amazing part was that the IHF knew that this was a weakness, but no trainer or psychologist with the experience of working with top outfits was employed to actually work with the team. Sadly, all the psychologists who came and worked never understood the team and were found wanting in their own work areas.” Ironically, none have pursued the inner science of consciousness and understood the nature of its unity deeper than our Indian seers.

Desired outcomes are not guaranteed in life. But we can follow the Gita and replace the myopic objective of chasing outcomes with a transparent and relentless focus on getting the process and preparation right. Then we can expect consistent performances from an Indian team playing Indic hockey without sacrificing its traditional artistry. At its peak, India won the hockey gold and entered the football semi-finals in the 1956 Olympics. We pray to the Kreeda devatas that our dream comes true and Indian hockey rises again to reach its moon.

 

source link: The Hindu Sportstar. 2018.

References

  1. Forgive Me Amma: The Life and Times of Dhanraj Pillay. By Sundeep Misra. 2007.
  2. My Olympic Journey: 50 of India’s Leading Sportspersons on the Biggest Test of Their Career. By Digvijay Singh Deo and Amit Bose. 2016.
  3. BharatiyaHockey.org.
  4. International Hockey Federation (FIH) match report.
  5. sportskeeda.com.
  6. thesportscol.com.
  7. The Hindu’s Sportstar.
  8. Indian Express.
  9. Mid-day.com.
  10. Firstpost.com.