This story is from May 26, 2020

How Balbir Singh Sr won over his players

"How are you Number 4, and how's Joe doing?" This is how MM Somaya was greeted by the legendary Balbir Singh Sr when they met at the Times of India Sports Awards in the capital earlier this year.
How Balbir Singh Sr won over his players
Image credit: AFP
MUMBAI: "How are you Number 4, and how's Joe doing?" This is how MM Somaya was greeted by the legendary Balbir Singh Sr when they met at the Times of India Sports Awards in the capital earlier this year. "He always called me No. 4 because I wore that jersey and Joe referred to Joaquim Carvalho, my India teammate from Mumbai," Somaya told TOI on Monday, on learning about the passing of one of hockey's all-time superstars.

"That was the greatness of the man. He always ensured he enquired about people whom he knew. And to hear this from someone who was in the mid-90s not only showed the sharp memory he possessed, but also that he cared for his former players," added Somaya, who was part of a few teams that Balbir Sr looked after (as manager) in the early 80s.
Not all great players go on to become successful leaders of men, but Balbir Sr was in a league of his own. As a player, he was not only instrumental in India going on to win three gold medals at the Olympics between 1948 and 1956, he was also the manager of the side that won the 1975 World Cup.
"At 21, I was the youngest in the team that won the World Cup," recalls Onkar Singh, who is now the sports director at the Khalsa College here. "And I was in awe of the manner in which he conducted himself in front of us. He was extremely humble and a very good reader of people's abilities. He would point out whatever mistakes we made, but never sounded rude.
"He formed a very good management team with the coach Gurcharan Singh Bodhi at the World Cup and it was their planning and the proper execution by us that led to the triumph," the 66-year-old added.
Somaya, meanwhile, recalled that while Balbir Sr was generally soft in his approach towards people, he would not hesitate in taking bold decisions when the situation arose. "The moment he felt that some player was not playing for the team's cause, he would be thrown out. That's something he would never tolerate," said Somaya.

Carvalho, on the other hand, still remembers one particular game against Pakistan in the 1982 Champions Trophy in Amstelveen where Balbir Sr's calmness helped them cross the line, before they eventually won the bronze medal. "We were trailing 0-3 and the game looked lost. But he stayed very calm and motivated us to keep attacking. And the eventual result was 5-4 with our team winning the game," Carvalho recalled.
Rajinder Singh (Jr) scored a hat-trick in that game.
The other instance when Balbir Sr's leadership qualities came to the fore was when the Indian team had been thrashed 7-1 by Pakistan in the final of the 1982 Asian Games in front of their home crowd in Delhi. "Everyone was going after the team, but Balbir Saab, as manager, took it upon himself to protect the players. He told us not to worry about what the media wrote or what people said. He convinced us that it was a one-off result," said Carvalho.
And, indeed, it was a one-off result. Days later at the Esanda Invitational tournament in Melbourne, India went on to overturn the result against their arch rivals, winning 2-1.
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