Ajit Pal Singh

Indian field hockey player

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Ajit Pal SinghPersonal information

Full name|  Ajit Pal Singh Kular
Born|  (1947-04-01) 1 April 1947 (age 78)
Sansarpur, Punjab, India
Height|  5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1]
Playing position|  Halfback

Medal record

Men's field hockey
Representing  India
Olympic Games
| 1968 Mexico City | Team
| 1972 Munich | Team
Hockey World Cup
| 1975 Kuala Lumpur | Team
| 1973 Amsterdam | Team
| 1971 Barcelona | Team
Asian Games
| 1970 Bangkok | Team
| 1974 Tehran | Team

Ajit Pal Singh Kular (also spelled Ajitpal Singh, born 1 April 1947[2]) was an Indian professional field hockey player from Sansarpur, Punjab. He was the captain of the Indian hockey team. He was conferred the Arjuna Award in 1970, and awarded it in 1972. He played at centre half position. He was captain of the Indian team at the Hockey World Cup 1975 held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He represented India in three Olympics from 1968 through 1976, winning bronze medals in his first two Olympic Games.[3] He was appointed India's chef de mission for 2012 Summer Olympics. It was the first time that a sports person was given this opportunity, as earlier this position went to either politicians or administrators.[4] However he could not make it to the event due to severe spondylitis.[5] Seven member IOA, Indian Olympic Association Committee selected in April 2012 Ajit Pal Singh as Chef de Mission for Indian mission in London 2012 Olympics. He is also at present the organising member of All India Balwant Singh Kapur Hockey Tournament for Mata Parkash Kaur Cup held every year for school boys under-16. He is a recipient of the civilian honour of Padma Shri (1992).[6]

## Early life

[edit]

Singh was born on 1 April 1947 at Sansarpur, a small village near Jalandhar Cantonment of Punjab, which was famous as a breeding ground for the hockey stars as this village had been home to a number of international hockey players who had done the nation proud with their commendable performance in the game. As a young man he joined the newly raised Border Security Force(BSF) and captained the Hockey team of BSF. Under his captaincy BSF hockey team lifted the Nehru Trophy in 1975. He left the force as an Assistant Commandant.

Ajit Pal Singh with team members In 2008-09

## Domestic hockey

[edit]

At the age of 7 or 8 years, little Ajit had been handed over a hockey stick by his uncle. He studied at the Cantonment Board Higher Secondary School, Jalandhar Cantonment and at the age of 16 years represented the Punjab State Schools Hockey team in 1963. During his initial days, Ajit used to play at the Full Back position. He moved to the Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar in 1964, and stayed there for a period of 4 years leading the college to 3 victories in the Punjab University College tournament. It was here that Ajit shifted from Full Back to Center Half, his real position. He was named the Captain of Punjab University Hockey team in 1966, and represented Indian Universities' Hockey team in 1968.

## International hockey

[edit]

Ajit Pal Singh made his debut in International Hockey with a tournament played at Bombay in 1960. He was selected in the Indian Hockey team that visited Japan in 1966, and participated in the Pre-Olympic tournament held in London the next year. Further, he played in the Olympic Games Mexico 1968 and delivered a brilliant performance although the Indian Hockey squad stood at 3rd spot at the event. Ajit played for the Indian Hockey team at Bangkok Asian Games 1970, and was named the Captain of the Indian squad that played at Post Shuan Tournament held at Singapore in 1971, and Tehran Asian Games 1974. The Indian team managed to grab a Silver Medal at both the events. He was a part of the Indian squad at Munich Olympic Games 1972, where the team finished at 3rd spot getting a Bronze Medal. He led the Indian Hockey team to World Cup Hockey tournament held at Kuala Lumpur in 1975 leading the team to win the tournament and also at Montreal Olympic Games 1976 where the Indian team fared really badly and finished at the 7th spot. After this debacle, Ajit Pal Singh retired from International Hockey, although he participated in his last International Hockey event in 1980 at Champions Trophy Tournament, Karachi. Even after his retirement from International Hockey, Ajit continued to play in Domestic Hockey Circuit for Border Security Force (B.S.F.) team.

## Awards

[edit]

As an honour for his outstanding contribution to Indian Hockey, Ajit Pal Singh was conferred upon the Arjuna Award in 1970. Further, he was also bestowed upon the Padma Shri award in 1992.[6]

## See also

[edit]

* List of Indian hockey captains in Olympics
* Field hockey in India
* India men's national field hockey team

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Player's Profile". Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
2. ^ "Sikh-History.com". Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
3. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Ajitpal Singh". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
4. ^ "Ajit Pal Singh named Indian Chef-de-Mission". Deccan Herald. 2 April 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
5. ^ "Brigadier Raja named India's acting Chef-de-Mission". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 27 July 2012.
6. ^ a b "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.

## External links

[edit]

* Ajit Pal Singh at Olympedia

* v
* t
* e

Recipients of Padma Shri in Sports

1950s|

* Balbir Singh Sr. (1957)
* K. D. Singh (1958)
* Mihir Sen (1959)
* Milkha Singh (1959)

1960s|

* Vijay Hazare (1960)
* Jasu Patel (1960)
* Arati Saha (1960)
* Nari Contractor (1962)
* Sonam Gyatso (1962)
* Ramanathan Krishnan (1962)
* Gostha Pal (1962)
* Polly Umrigar (1962)
* Syed Mushtaq Ali (1963)
* M. J. Gopalan (1964)
* Nawang Gombu (1964)
* Charanjit Singh (1964)
* H. P. S. Ahluwalia (1965)
* Avtar Singh Cheema (1965)
* D. B. Deodhar (1965)
* Phu Dorjee (1965)
* Wilson Jones (1965)
* Verghese Kurien (1965)
* Harish Chandra Singh Rawat (1965)
* Chandra Prakash Vohra (1965)
* Sonam Wangyal (1965)
* Kishan Lal (1966)
* Narendra Kumar (1965)
* Shankar Lakshman (1967)
* Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (1967)
* Gurdial Singh (1967)
* Prithipal Singh (1967)
* Chandu Borde (1969)

1970s|

* Bishan Singh Bedi (1970)
* Moin-ul-Haq (1970)
* E. A. S. Prasanna (1970)
* Leslie Claudius (1971)
* Sailen Manna (1971)
* Ghaus Mohammad (1971)
* Chandgi Ram (1971)
* Kamaljeet Sandhu (1971)
* Gundappa Viswanath (1971)
* Harsh Vardhan Bahuguna (1972)
* B. S. Chandrasekhar (1972)
* Ajit Wadekar (1972)
* Farokh Engineer (1973)
* Pankaj Roy (1975)
* Roshan Lal Anand (1976)
* Meena Shah (1977)

1980s|

* Vasudevan Baskaran (1981)
* Syed Kirmani (1982)
* Kapil Dev (1982)
* Prakash Padukone (1982)
* Vijay Amritraj (1983)
* Bahadur Singh Chauhan (1983)
* Guru Hanuman (1983)
* Eliza Nelson (1983)
* Chand Ram (1983)
* Kaur Singh (1983)
* Raghubir Singh (1983)
* Satpal Singh (1983)
* M. D. Valsamma (1983)
* Geeta Zutshi (1983)
* Charles Borromeo (1984)
* Phu Dorjee (1984)
* Chuni Goswami (1984)
* D. K. Khullar (1984)
* Bachendri Pal (1984)
* Omprakesh Agrawal (1985)
* P. T. Usha (1985)
* Anupama Gokhale (1986)
* Swaroop Kishen (1986)
* Geet Sethi (1986)
* Mohammad Shahid (1986)
* Bhagyashree Thipsay (1987)
* Dilip Vengsarkar (1987)
* Viswanathan Anand (1988)
* Mohammad Azharuddin (1988)

1990s|

* Chandraprabha Aitwal (1990)
* P. K. Banerjee (1990)
* Premchand Degra (1990)
* Gulshan Rai (1990)
* Jaman Lal Sharma (1990)
* Taranath Narayan Shenoy (1990)
* Selma D'Silva (1991)
* Aspy Adajania (1992)
* Ajit Pal Singh (1992)
* Sriram Singh (1992)
* Hakam Singh (1992)
* Shiny Abraham (1998)
* Ramesh Krishnan (1998)
* Lila Ram (1998)
* Pargat Singh (1998)
* Karnam Malleswari (1999)
* Sachin Tendulkar (1999)

2000s|

* Santosh Yadav (2000)
* Mahesh Bhupathi (2001)
* Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla (2001)
* Bhuvneshwari Kumari (2001)
* Leander Paes (2001)
* Dhanraj Pillay (2001)
* Sunita Rani (2001)
* Diana Edulji (2002)
* Jaspal Rana (2002)
* Mukesh Kumar (2003)
* Gopal Purushottam Phadke (2003)
* Kanhaya Lal Pokhriyal (2003)
* Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (2003)
* Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan (2003)
* K. M. Beenamol (2004)
* Gurmayum Anita Devi (2004)
* Rahul Dravid (2004)
* Sourav Ganguly (2004)
* Anju Bobby George (2004)
* S. P. Nimbalkar (2004)
* Dilip Tirkey (2004)
* Pullela Gopichand (2005)
* Anil Kumble (2005)
* Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (2005)
* Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2005)
* Rachel Thomas (2005)
* Madhumita Bisht (2006)
* Mohan Singh Gunjyal (2006)
* Mary Kom (2006)
* Sania Mirza (2006)
* Bahadur Singh Sagoo (2006)
* Koneru Humpy (2007)
* Jeev Milkha Singh (2007)
* Bhaichung Bhutia (2008)
* Bula Choudhury (2008)
* Pankaj Advani (2009)
* MS Dhoni (2009)
* Balbir Singh Kullar (2009)
* Harbhajan Singh (2009)

2010s|

* Ramakant Achrekar (2010)
* Narain Karthikeyan (2010)
* Saina Nehwal (2010)
* Virender Sehwag (2010)
* Vijender Singh (2010)
* Ignace Tirkey (2010)
* Kunjarani Devi (2011)
* Sushil Kumar (2011)
* VVS Laxman (2011)
* Shital Mahajan (2011)
* Gagan Narang (2011)
* Krishna Poonia (2011)
* Harbhajan Singh (mountaineer) (2011)
* S. M. Arif (2012)
* Ravi Chaturvedi (2012)
* Jhulan Goswami (2012)
* Zafar Iqbal (field hockey) (2012)
* Devendra Jhajharia (2012)
* Limba Ram (2012)
* Prabhakar Vaidya (2012)
* Premlata Agrawal (2013)
* Yogeshwar Dutt (2013)
* Vijay Kumar (2013)
* Girisha Nagarajegowda (2013)
* Dingko Singh (2013)
* Bajrang Lal Takhar (2013)
* Anjum Chopra (2014)
* Sunil Dabas (2014)
* Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu (2014)
* Dipika Pallikal (2014)
* H. Boniface Prabhu (2014)
* Yuvraj Singh (2014)
* Mamta Sodha (2014)
* Saba Anjum Karim (2015)
* Mithali Raj (2015)
* P. V. Sindhu (2015)
* Sardara Singh (2015)
* Arunima Sinha (2015)
* Sushil Doshi (2016)
* Deepika Kumari (2016)
* Vikas Gowda (2017)
* Dipa Karmakar (2017)
* Virat Kohli (2017)
* Deepa Malik (2017)
* Sakshi Malik (2017)
* Shekhar Naik (2017)
* P. R. Sreejesh (2017)
* Mariyappan Thangavelu (2017)
* Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (2018)
* Somdev Devvarman (2018)
* Murlikant Petkar (2018)
* Srikanth Kidambi (2018)
* Sunil Chhetri (2019)
* Harika Dronavalli (2019)
* Gautam Gambhir (2019)
* Sharath Kamal (2019)
* Bombayla Devi Laishram (2019)
* Bajrang Punia (2019)
* Prashanti Singh (2019)
* Ajay Thakur (2019)

2020s|

* Oinam Bembem Devi (2020)
* M. P. Ganesh (2020)
* Zaheer Khan (2020)
* Jitu Rai (2020)
* Tarundeep Rai (2020)
* Rani Rampal (2020)
* Anitha Pauldurai (2021)
* Anshu Jamsenpa (2021)
* Mouma Das (2021)
* Sudha Singh (2021)
* Virender Singh (2021)
* K. Y. Venkatesh (2021)
* Sumit Antil (2022)
* Pramod Bhagat (2022)
* Neeraj Chopra (2022)
* Sankaranarayana Menon (2022)
* Faisal Ali Dar (2022)
* Vandana Katariya (2022)
* Avani Lekhara (2022)
* Brahmanand Sankhwalkar (2022)
* S. R. D. Prasad (2023)
* K. Shanathoiba Sharma (2023)
* Gurcharan Singh (2023)
* Joshna Chinappa (2024)
* Rohan Bopanna (2024)
* Purnima Mahato (2024)
* Harbinder Singh (2024)
* Satendra Singh Lohiya (2024)
* Gaurav Khanna (2024)
* Uday Vishwanath Deshpande (2024)
* Harvinder Singh (2025)
* I. M. Vijayan (2025)
* Ravichandran Ashwin (2025)
* Satyapal Singh (2025)

India squads

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* e

India squad – 1968 Summer Olympics – Bronze medal

* 1 Rajendran Christie
* 2 Krishnamurthy Perumal
* 3 John Peter
* 4 Muneer Sait
* 5 Inam-ur Rahman
* 6 Ajit Pal Singh
* 7 Balbir Singh Kullar
* 8 Balbir Singh Kular
* 9 Balbir Singh
* 10 Gurbux Singh (c)
* 11 Harbinder Singh
* 12 Harmik Singh
* 13 Inder Singh
* 14 Prithipal Singh (c)
* 15 Tarsem Singh
* 16 Jagjit Singh
* Coach: Balkrishan Singh

* v
* t
* e

India squad – 1970 Asian Games – Silver medal

* 1 Charles Cornelius
* 2 M. P. Ganesh
* 3 B. P. Govinda
* 4 Balbir Singh Grewal
* 5 Ashok Kumar
* 6 Vinod Kumar
* 7 Cedric Pereira
* 8 Krishnamurthy Perumal
* 9 Ajit Pal Singh
* 10 Baldev Singh
* 11 Harbinder Singh
* 12 Harcharan Singh
* 13 Harmik Singh
* 14 Kulwant Singh
* 15 Major Singh
* 16 Mukhbain Singh
* 17 Mohinder Singh
* 18 Uthiah

* v
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* e

India squad – 1971 World Cup – 3rd place

* 1 Ajit Pal Singh (c)
* 2 Cedric Pereira
* 3 Charles Cornelius
* 4 Baldev Singh
* 5 Vinod Kumar
* 6 Michael Kindo
* 7 Krishnamurthy Perumal
* 8 Harmik Singh
* 9 Vece Paes
* 10 M. P. Ganesh
* 11 Ashok Kumar
* 12 Rajwinder Singh
* 13 Shahid Noor
* 14 Francis D'Mello
* 15 Kulwant Singh
* 16 Harcharan Singh
* Coach: Balbir Singh Sr.

* v
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* e

India squad – 1972 Summer Olympics – Bronze medal

* 1 B. P. Govinda
* 2 Charles Cornelius
* 3 Manuel Frederick
* 4 Michael Kindo
* 5 V. J. Philips
* 6 Ashok Kumar
* 7 M. P. Ganesh
* 8 Krishnamurthy Perumal
* 9 Ajit Pal Singh
* 10 Harbinder Singh
* 11 Harcharan Singh
* 12 Harmik Singh (c)
* 13 Kulwant Singh
* 14 Mukhbain Singh
* 15 Varinder Singh
* 16 Vece Paes
* Coach: K. D. Singh

* v
* t
* e

India squad – 1973 World Cup – Runners–up

* 1 M. P. Ganesh (c)
* 2 Charles Cornelius
* 3 Cedric Pereira
* 4 Surjit Singh
* 5 Michael Kindo
* 6 Baldev Singh
* 7 Vasudevan Baskaran
* 8 Harmik Singh
* 9 Ajit Pal Singh
* 10 Varinder Singh
* 11 Harcharan Singh
* 12 Chand Singh
* 13 Ajit Singh
* 14 B. P. Govinda
* 15 Ashok Kumar
* 16 Victor Philips
* Coach: Randhir Singh Gentle

* v
* t
* e

India squad – 1974 Asian Games – Silver medal

* 1 Vasudevan Baskaran
* 2 John Correia
* 3 Leslie Fernandez
* 4 M. P. Ganesh
* 5 B. P. Govinda
* 6 Aslam Sher Khan
* 7 Mehboob Khan
* 8 Ashok Kumar
* 9 K. N. Kusha
* 10 Victor Philips
* 11 Surjit Singh Randhawa
* 12 Ajit Singh
* 13 Ajit Pal Singh
* 14 Baldev Singh
* 15 Chand Singh
* 16 Harcharan Singh
* 17 Harmik Singh
* 18 Varinder Singh

* v
* t
* e

India squad – 1975 World Cup – Champions (1st Title)

* 1 Leslie Fernandez
* 2 Ashok Diwan
* 3 Surjit Singh
* 4 Michael Kindo
* 5 Aslam Sher Khan
* 6 Varinder Singh
* 7 Onkar Singh
* 8 Mohinder Singh
* 9 Ajit Pal Singh (c)
* 10 Ashok Kumar
* 12 B. P. Govinda
* 13 Harcharan Singh
* 14 Harjinder Singh
* 15 Victor Philips
* 16 Shivaji Pawar
* 17 BP Kaliah
* Coach: Gurcharan Singh Bodhi

* v
* t
* e

India squad – 1976 Summer Olympics – 7th place

* 1 Ajit Pal Singh (c)
* 2 Victor Philips
* 3 Baldev Singh
* 4 Ashok Diwan
* 5 B. P. Govinda
* 6 Ashok Kumar
* 7 Varinder Singh
* 8 Harcharan Singh
* 9 Mohinder Singh
* 10 Aslam Sher Khan
* 11 Syed Ali
* 12 Bir Bahadur Chettri
* 13 Chand Singh
* 14 Ajit Singh
* 15 Surjit Singh Randhawa
* 16 Vasudevan Baskaran
* Coach: Gurbachan Singh

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