Shimla: The winner of the Olympic medal twice and former Indian Hockey captain Chararjit Singh who died in Una at Himachal Pradesh on Thursday was called ‘Captain Lucky’.
He was the captain of the Indian Hockey team who won gold in 1964 Olympics Tokyo and part of the team who won the Silver Medal at the Roman Olympics in 1960 and 1962 Asian Games.
The recipient of Padma Shri and Arjuna award, Chararjit was born in Mairi Una Village, then part of Punjab, on February 3, 1931.
Since the days of students, he is an extraordinary sportsman and alumni of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
Starting his hockey round from the first inter-university match in 1949, he proceeded to represent the country from 1958 to 1965.
Paying tribute to Veteran, another Hockey Olympic Colonel Balbir Singh Kull, from Sansarpur Village in Jalandhar, “Chararjit led the Indian team Three times and every time India won it, why we called the lucky captain.
Injuries forced him to sit from the 1960 Olympic men’s hockey final when India lost to Pakistan by 0-1.
“He said Chararjit had to leave the field in the Final Hockey Game Asia Jakarta 1962 against Pakistan with a face injury while maintaining a shot from Manzoor Hussain is approved, who then retired as a brigadier of the Pakistani army.
“Because no substitution was allowed at the time, India played with 10 men and lost 0-2 to Pakistan.
However, Chararjit led us to win against the same opponent two years later at the Tokyo Olympics,” said Col Balbir, who was a member of the Indian team who won a bronze medal at the Mexican Olympics 1968.
Given Charjit as the main half, Balbir said he was very good at intercept the cross of both sides.
“Chararjit brought a lot of balance to the team because he could survive very well besides feeding a forward line,” he said.
After his famous career in international hockey, he worked as director of the Department of Physical Education at the University of Himachal Pradesh, in Shimla.