Hockey in India: Olympic Golds, Dhyan Chand and MCQs

The correct answer is C, Balbir Singh Dosanjh, the hockey centre forward known as Balbir Singh Sr. He won Olympic gold with India in 1948, 1952 and 1956, scored five goals in the 1952 final against the Netherlands, and in 1957 became the first sportsperson of any game to be given the Padma Shri, which opened the civilian honours to sport.

Option A, Manpreet Singh, is a much later player who captained the team to the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Option B, Milkha Singh, the athlete called the Flying Sikh, did receive the Padma Shri, but after Balbir Singh Sr and for athletics, not hockey. Option D, Dhanraj Pillay, was a celebrated forward of the 1990s and 2000s and was honoured much later still, so none of the three came first.

The correct answer is C, eight. India won the Olympic hockey gold in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964 and 1980, which is a record in the game. Along with these came a silver in 1960 and bronze medals in 1968, 1972 and 2020, so hockey has given India more Olympic medals than any other sport.

Option A, six, is the number of golds in the unbroken run from 1928 to 1956, the golden era, and is the favourite distractor because that run is quoted so often. Option B, seven, would leave out either the Tokyo gold of 1964 or the Moscow gold of 1980. Option D, nine, counts one medal too many, usually by adding the 1960 Rome final, which India lost to Pakistan and in which it therefore won the silver.

The correct answer is B, 1928. India played its first Olympic hockey tournament at the Amsterdam Games of 1928 and won the gold medal at that first attempt, with Jaipal Singh Munda as the captain and Dhyan Chand as the leading scorer. It was also India's first Olympic gold medal in any event.

Option A, 1920, is the year of the Antwerp Games, at which India took part in athletics and wrestling but not in hockey. Option C, 1932, is the Los Angeles Games, India's second gold, remembered for the 24–1 win over the United States. Option D, 1936, is the Berlin Games, the third gold in the row, where India beat Germany 8–1 in the final with Dhyan Chand as captain. All three of these are golds or Games in which India took part, which is what makes them plausible, but only Amsterdam was the first.

The correct answer is A, Major Dhyan Chand, who was born on 29 August 1905. National Sports Day is observed on his birthday every year, and it is the day on which the President presents the national sports awards, among them the Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award and the Dronacharya Award. The highest of those honours now carries his name as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

Option B, Balbir Singh Sr, was the great centre forward of the 1948, 1952 and 1956 teams, but no national day is tied to his birth. Option C, Milkha Singh, was an athlete who famously finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Option D, K. D. Jadhav, was the wrestler who won India's first individual Olympic medal, a bronze at Helsinki in 1952. None of the three is connected with 29 August.

The correct answer is C, 1975. India won the Hockey World Cup at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 1975, beating Pakistan 2–1 in the final. Ashok Kumar, the son of Dhyan Chand, scored the winning goal and Ajit Pal Singh led the side. It remains India's only World Cup title in the game.

Option A, 1971, is the year of the first Hockey World Cup, played at Barcelona and won by Pakistan, with India finishing third. Option B, 1973, is the second edition at Amstelveen, where India reached the final and lost to the Netherlands on penalty strokes. Option D, 1980, is the year of the Moscow Olympics, where India won its eighth and so far last Olympic gold, and is the most common confusion in this question.

The correct answer is A, Ajit Pal Singh, the centre half who captained India to the World Cup title at Kuala Lumpur in 1975. He had also played in the World Cups of 1971 and 1973 and was later given the Padma Shri for his services to the game.

Option B, Ashok Kumar, played in that final and scored the winning goal against Pakistan, but he was not the captain; he is remembered as the son of Dhyan Chand. Option C, Vasudevan Bhaskaran, captained the team that won the Olympic gold at Moscow in 1980, five years later. Option D, Kishan Lal, led India to the Olympic gold at London in 1948, the first won after independence, twenty seven years before this World Cup. A question of this kind usually mixes the captains of different titles, so the safe way is to learn the pairs together: 1948 London with Kishan Lal, 1975 World Cup with Ajit Pal Singh and 1980 Moscow with Vasudevan Bhaskaran.

The correct answer is D, 11. A hockey side fields eleven players at a time, one of whom is the goalkeeper, and the other ten are spread across defence, midfield and attack. Substitutes wait off the field and may be sent on and taken off any number of times while play goes on, which is called rolling substitution, but the count on the field never rises above eleven unless the umpire has to be told otherwise.

Option A, 10, is the number a team is left with after a player is sent off with a yellow or a red card, not the normal count. Option B, 16, is the size of the full squad a team names for a tournament such as the Olympics, of whom eleven take the field. Option C, 12, is the number in a kho kho team, of whom nine enter the field. Cricket and football also field eleven players each, which is why such a question often lists several eleven player games together.

The correct answer is B, hockey. A penalty corner, also called a short corner, is awarded when a defender breaks a rule inside the striking circle or deliberately puts the ball out over the back line. The ball is pushed out from the back line, stopped at the top of the circle and then struck at the goal while the defenders wait behind their goal line, and it is the way a large share of goals in modern hockey are scored.

Option A, volleyball, uses terms such as service, smash, block, deuce and libero. Option C, basketball, uses dribble, pivot, free throw, rebound and dunk. Option D, badminton, uses smash, drop shot, let, deuce and shuttle. Bully, penalty stroke, astroturf, scoop and flick are the other words that belong with hockey.

The correct answer is D, Moscow 1980. India beat Spain 4–3 in the final at the Moscow Games to win its eighth Olympic hockey gold, under the captaincy of Vasudevan Bhaskaran, and the team has not won the gold since. At the Tokyo Games of 2020 India returned to the podium with a bronze after a gap of forty one years.

Option A, Tokyo 1964, was the seventh gold, won against Pakistan in the final. Option B, Mexico City 1968, and Option C, Munich 1972, were the two Games at which India finished third and took the bronze medal, the first slip after the long golden run. The shift to artificial astroturf pitches from the Montreal Games of 1976 is one reason usually given for the decline that followed.

The correct answer is C, hockey. The Beighton Cup, played at Kolkata, is the oldest hockey tournament in India, and the Agha Khan Cup is another of the old club competitions of the game. The Rangaswami Cup of the national championship, the Nehru Trophy, the Scindia Gold Cup and the Obaidullah Gold Cup are hockey trophies as well.

Option A, football, has the Durand Cup, the Santosh Trophy, the Rovers Cup and the IFA Shield. Option B, cricket, has the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Irani Cup and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Option D, table tennis, has the Swaythling Cup for men and the Corbillon Cup for women. Matching a trophy with its game is a standing question in the general awareness paper, so these lists are worth learning together.

The correct answer is A, FIH, the International Hockey Federation, founded in 1924 and having its headquarters at Lausanne in Switzerland. It frames the rules of the game, runs the World Cup and the other international competitions and recognises the national associations, of which Hockey India is the Indian member.

Option B, FIFA, founded in 1904 and based at Zurich, governs association football. Option C, the ICC, the International Cricket Council, governs cricket and has its headquarters at Dubai. Option D, the IAAF, the old name of the world body for athletics, now called World Athletics, is based at Monaco. Only the FIH deals with hockey, and a question that pairs a body with its game or with its headquarters city is worth preparing as one list: FIH with Lausanne, FIFA with Zurich, the ICC with Dubai and World Athletics with Monaco.

The correct answer is C. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has made it clear that the Government of India has not declared any sport to be the national game of the country. Hockey is widely called the national game because of the eight Olympic gold medals it brought India, but that is a popular description and not an official status.

Option A is the usual belief and the reason this question is set; 1928 is the year of India's first Olympic hockey gold, not of any declaration. Option B is wrong because cricket, for all its popularity after the World Cup win of 1983, has never been given such a status either. Option D is wrong on the same ground; kabaddi is an old Indian game and has been part of the Asian Games since 1990, but it has not been declared the national game.