Kishan Lal (Tapan Das in GOLD)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Kishan Lal

• Did Kishan Lal smoke?: Not Known

• Did Kishan Lal drink alcohol?: Not Known

• When he was a child, he became very interested in watching Polo. It is said that it was Polo that inclined him towards Hockey.

• At the age of 14, he started to play field Hockey.

  

• In childhood, Kishan Lal was snapped by an arrogant hawker and said ‘Who do you think you are? The son of a King? Do you have dinner with princes?’ Kishan retorted: ‘Don’t be so smart. One day, I’ll dine with the Prince of England.’ Amazingly, when India won the Olympic Gold, he dined with the Prince of England.

• For some time, Kishan Lal played with the Hockey ace Dhyan Chand for Jhansi Heroes.

  

• During that time, the captain of Bhagwant Club Hockey Team, Mr. M. N. Zutshi got impressed by his play and Kishan Lal was brought to the attention of the Maharaja Bir Singh Ju Dev, who helped Kishan Lal very much.

• In 1941, he played for BB & CI Railway (Now, Western Railway). After some time, he played for Central India in the National Hockey Championship.

• He was the member of the winning teams of Agha Khan Cup, Beighton Cup, Obaidullah Khan Cup and the Scindia Cup Tournaments.

• In 1947, he was selected to the Indian Hockey Team for the first time and played under the captaincy of Dhyan Chand on the tour of East Africa.

• In the 1948 Olympics, he was made the captain of the team and won the Gold medal after beating Great Britain by 4-0, in the final. It was the occasion of honour and Pride when India was performing for the first time as an Independent Nation and for the first time, the Indian Tri-colour was unfurled when National Anthem was played.

  

• After winning the Gold medal in Olympics, a red carpet welcome was given to the team in Bombay.

  

• At that time, the then President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and the then Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, attended an exhibition match of the Olympic winning team.

• Kishan Lal played hockey for 28 years and after retirement, he became a coach and trained the players like Balbir Singh, Harbinder Singh, Prithipal Singh and Mohinder Singh.
  

  

  

• In 1964, he received the invitation from the Malaysian Hockey Board to train the Malaysian Team.

• In 1968, Kishan Lal was invited to train East Germany.

• In 2018, the GOLD movie was released, in which, actor Akshay Kumar portrayed the role of him as Tapan Das.