‘Hockey rajahs’: When Dhyan Chand’s India cast a spell on Australia

For the Indian men’s field hockey team, one of the biggest obstacles in their way at any major international tournament in the 21st century is a strong Australian side. The Aussies just seem to have India’s number: no matter which players are on the green pitch, the result rarely defies the predictable. But in the first half of the last century, it was India that was the hockey giant, flicking away Australians at will. An excellent display of its dominance was in 1935, when a visiting team captained by the extraordinarily talented Dhyan Chand went Down Under.

The two-time defending Olympic champions sent a young side to Australia and New Zealand, where they were scheduled to mostly play against local clubs. A large number of the players were inexperienced. Most were between the ages of 19 and 27, according to contemporary reports in the Australian media.

In his memoir, Dhyan Chand recalled being a “bit nervous” about the prospects of the raw team, which was picked by the Indian hockey authorities with an eye on the 1936 Berlin Olympics. “The 1935 team for New Zealand was composed mostly of youngsters, whose names were little known in hockey circles,” he wrote in the memoir that...

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