Once insulted at the gate, Dhyan Chand now gets stadium named after him in Ahmedabad

Dhyan Chand. Pictures/ mid-day

Home Minister Amit Shah's recent announcement that a brand new hockey stadium named after Dhyan Chand is being constructed at the Sardar Patel Sports Enclave in Ahmedabad came as a pleasant surprise to Ashok Kumar, son of the legendary hockey wizard.

"We did not know that this stadium was being planned and when Amit Shah said that it would be named after Babuji [Dhyan Chand], I was overjoyed," Ashok Kumar, 70, also a former India hockey captain, told mid-day.com from his Delhi residence on Friday.

Ashok Kumar

While this is not the first hockey stadium in the country to be named after Dhyan Chand, the city is special because of an incident the hockey legend experienced there over 50 years ago.

"In 1969, there was an international hockey tournament in Ahmedabad and Babuji went there to watch it. However, there was some friction between the then Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and some officials of the National Institute of Sport (NIS), Patiala, so Babuji was stopped from entering the Ahmedabad stadium. ‘Aap Dhyan Chand hai toh kya hua? (so what if you are Dhyan Chand?)' one of the officials at the gate said to Babuji, rudely insisting that he purchase a ticket to watch the proceedings. Not one to argue, Babuji quietly walked over to the ticket counter, stood in the queue, purchased his ticket and watched his favourite sport," Ashok recalled.

"So, now to have an entire stadium named after this great man in the same city where he was refused entry to a hockey stadium, is definitely extra special," added Ashok.

Dhyan Chand, who was part of India's gold medal-winning outfits at the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics, passed away in 1979.