By After Singh | Malaysia |
The year 1978 was a proud moment for Sikh hockey players for helping Malaysia win the bronze medal in the Asian Games in Bangkok.
Malaysian hockey team was led by five Sikh players – Awtar Singh Grewal (still practising as a lawyer), Avtar Singh Gill (retired from PKNS), Mohinder Singh (retired as Supt of Police), Savinder Singh (retired as a Army Major) and Updesh Singh Gill, who is based in France.
It was the first time in the history of Malaysian hockey that there were five Sikh players in the national hockey team.
The Sikhs did the country proud by helping Malaysia win the bronze medal by edging Japan 2-1 in the third place match. Pakistan edged India 1-0 in the final to win the 1978 Asian Games gold medal.
The other players in the Malaysian team were Len Oliveiro, Razak Leman, Azraai Zain, Sayuti Abdul Samat, K.T. Rajan, Ramakrishnan Rengasamy, K. Balasingam, V. Ravindran, Foo Keat Seong as well as brothers Tam Chiew Seng and Tam Kum Seng.
Mohamad Sidek Othman was the coach while team manager was G. Vijinathan and assistant manager was K. Balakrishnan.
The 85-year-old Balakrishnan said that the players were selected based on merit and not on race.
“The team played truly for the country. The players showed true friendship on and off the field and it was great teamwork that led them to win the bronze.
“Winning the bronze was a great achievement for the national team. It was also a proud moment especially for having five Sikh players in the national team.
“I believe it was the first time we had a large number of Sikh players in the national team.
“I remember that we had centralised training in Pantai, KL for more than a month for Asian Games and we used to have nasi kandar for meals.
“It was also a proud moment for me as I was selected by the late Sultan Azlan Shah to be the team’s assistant manager,” said Balakrishnan, who was secretary of Melaka Hockey Association from 1970-1985 and then deputy president from 1990 to 2004.
Sadly today we don’t even have a single Sikh hockey player in the national team.
The last Sikh to feature for Malaysia was defender Maninderjit Singh in hockey in the Olympics (2000 Sydney). And last Malaysian to play for the country was Pavandip Singh in the 2021 Junior World Cup in Bhubaneswar, India.
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DATE . Aug/11/2025
