Former India captain and national coach Gurbux Singh remembers his captain of India’s 1964 Olympic gold medal hockey team, Charanjit Singh, as a very down-to-earth and of a compact player.

“I am very sad to hear of the passing of Charanjit Singh. He was a soft-spoken, down-to-earth and well-educated man. He was a compact centre-half. I started playing with him in 1961 during the New Zealand tour.

“The 1962 international tournament in Ahmedabad, where almost everyone except Pakistan played, and the Lyon tournament (Olympic qualification) in 1963 were some of the important events we played together before the 1964 Olympics. “, said Gurbux. The Hindu Thursday. We played against each other when he represented Punjab nationally,” he said.

Gurbux said Charanjit was a team player at heart.

“Charanjit started playing as a right inside with Balbir Singh. He was very good in our own half, inside the 25-yard line. As a defender, I can say he faced very solidly opposing players.

“In the 1964 team (Olympics) we could yell at anyone for any lapse and no one took it personally. Even captain Charanjit didn’t care and took it in his stride as he understood that it was for the good of the team. This was one of the good points of this team, which was dotted with well-known players such as four-time Olympian Udham Singh, Prithipal Singh, Charanjit , Shankar Lakshman, Haripal Kaushik and Mohinder Lal,” Gurbux said.