Leslie Claudius                      

In India our Olympic victories are few and far between. But at the same time we have had a legendary sportsman who won 4 Olympic medals and then lost all of them! No riddle this. It actually happened.

For an Indian to win 4 Olympic medallions he had to be a hockey player because India dominated world hockey from 1928 to the 1960s. Your guess that the sport is hockey is as perfect as it can be. But can you guess the name of the player concerned?

The hockey player happened to be none other than Leslie Claudius, the hockey marvel who won 3 gold medals and one silver medal for India in the four Olympics between 1948 and 1960.

Olympic medalists are honoured and revered the world over. To win an Olympic medal is an awesome achievement. These champions are a rare breed. But then to win four is nothing short of a miracle. Very, very few international sportsmen have won 4 Olympic medals and more.

Not many international sportsmen have lost their Olympic medals. The legendary ‘American Black’ boxer Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) threw away his gold medal out of sheer disgust. That is another story time. Another time.

Only one international sportsman has been known to have lost all the medals he had won at the Olympic Games. Thanks to an odd-job man, who had come to Leslie Claudius’ house to polish his medals and numerous other trophies. Some polishing the man did. The man actually polished off the medals and vanished without leaving behind any trace.

When as a freelancer, I went to Leslie Claudius’ residence for an interview for the Tiger-Pataudi edited sports weekly magazine Sportsworld way back in the 1980s, the laid-back personality quite casually said, “Ah! You want to see the Olympic medals?  I had asked a man to clean and polish my trophies. He took me literally, I suppose. He took the money and the medals with him. However he did a very good job with the rest of the trophies in the cabinet.”

Honestly, I was aghast, “Did you actually keep those gold and silver medals in an unlocked show-case in the drawing-room?” He nodded, “My mistake, I reckon. But then why would anybody be interested in my trophies?”

When told that the medals would fetch millions as souvenirs among collectors, he gave a relaxed smile, “Let’s say he needed the money more than I did!” It took a little while to dawn on the interviewer that the phlegmatic individual sitting opposite was in a sphere of his own without any attachment to worldly objects.

The life of Leslie Claudius has always been full of such unusual happenings. Born and brought up in hockey-dominated Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh, the young Claudius was fascinated by football and was fantastic at it. Among the sports-fanatic Anglo-Indian community at Bilaspur, he was an all-round sportsman with particular fondness for football.

Yet, when he came over to football-mad Bengal, first to Kharagpur and from there to Calcutta in 1946, ironically football receded into the background as the game of hockey dribbled into his heart. Office teams like Port Commissioners and Calcutta Customs helped him with the opportunities and the latent talent flowered in next to no time.

At every level – office, club and State teams – he left his mark. It is indeed unbelievable, that in only two years since he seriously wielded a hockey stick for the first time, he was actually donning the national colours in the London Olympics in 1948.

With Dhyan Chand and company around, India had won the Olympic hockey gold at Amsterdam (1928), at Los Angeles (1932) and Berlin (1936). Because of the 2^nd world war no Olympics took place in 1940 and 1944. Now after India’s independence, the 1948 London Olympics would be the first time that independent India would play under her own national tri-colour flag.

There was considerable consternation among the hockey followers. Would India be able to put up a reasonably good show with not much hockey played during the war period? Would the new players be able to live to the high expectations? Do we still possess the required talent?

But by the end of the London Olympic Games, the Indian flag kept fluttering to remind us of the exploits of Dhyan Chand, Rup Singh, Richard Allen, Carlyle Tapsell, Eric Pinniger and company. Untried youngsters like Claudius, Keshav Dutt, Ranganathan Francis and Randhir Singh Gentle came to the fore in 1948 and gave relief to hockey lovers around the country. In 1952 arrived Udham Singh and Balbir Singh (Sr). India’s top stature in world hockey remained unscathed.

From 1948 onwards, for the next 12 years Leslie Claudius was India’s mainstay at the pivotal position of center-half. This was the continuation of the golden period of Indian hockey. Uninterrupted success was a mere formality.

 Legendary Indian players dominated the world in a style as distinctive as it was effective. Claudius was always in focal point as the sheet anchor. One moment he would be defending his own goal and at the next he would be threatening the opposition’s “D”. Energetic and selfless, he had indomitable courage and a will-power to overcome any opposition, situation and condition.

Leslie Claudius was a stylist. Impeccable technique, he combined with powers of innovation. He inspired not by hollow words of advice, but by solid performance. He had no time for provincial, communal or class bias. He had no time for unscrupulous administrators. He formed no group, joined none as well. He was the shining nucleus of a world champion team.

But the contradictions continued. He did not cater to conventional wisdom. He was of medium-height, very tough but not muscular. He was not an exhibitionist. On the contrary he was a clean-shaven, young man of exemplary manners and bright eyes. Courteous and kind, he hardly had the macho image one generally associates with successful sportsmen.

His refreshing charm, his modesty, his refined voice and conduct belied all the conventional impressions of a star sportsman. He was a champion without an ego. He was an artist without any hang-ups. He was a super star without any controversy following him. He was a magnificent centre-half without having anyone good enough to be his rightful protégé.

He took his employment very seriously and went on to become an assistant commissioner of Calcutta Customs. After retirement, every Sunday morning after his visit to the church, he was a regular at the maidan tent of Ranger’s Club with a tankard of frothy beer in hand.

A delightful conversationalist, he once said, “We were unlucky not to have seen Dhyan Chand and Roop Singh at their peak. But let me tell you, son, even in their old age such was their ball control that we had difficulty to take the ball away from them. Both were wizards with the stick in hand. Roop was no less than his brother Dhyan, but was destined to be forever in the shadow of his elder brother.”

During the course of the interview at his McLeod Road flat, Claudius said, “From the 1950s many Anglo-Indians left India to settle in Australia and Canada. This was a setback for Indian hockey as the Anglo-Indians showed a distinct flair for the stick and ball game.” Absolutely correct he was. Many of our past greats came from the Anglo-Indian community.

After three successive Olympic gold medals at London (1948), Helsinki (1952) and Melbourne (1956), Claudius was selected to lead the country in the Rome Olympic Games in 1960. This was his 4^th Olympic Games. Later in 1964 Udham Singh, too, repeated Claudius’s record of 3 golds and one silver.

Sadly, India’s domination of the Olympic hockey honours came to an end in the final against Pakistan. Claudius was shattered. For him the Olympic silver medal was no compensation. He bid adieu to the game he loved and served with the greatest of dignity.

“That was the saddest day of my life. It was a magnificent final against Pakistan at Rome. No quarters were given and none expected. But the one nil defeat was just too much for me. I retired on our return.” Furrowed eyebrows clouded his face.

Within moments, however, he brightened up, “You know, son, when the national flag goes up the pole you get a strange feeling that cannot be described. Hardened men have tears in their eyes. You only think of your country and nothing else matters. I was lucky to have enjoyed that exhilarating feeling no less than three times.

Then after a while, his voice faltered, “At Rome on the podium we tried to muffle our disappointment. Tough adults cried like children. The silver medal seemed to mock at me.”

Sport is said to be a great leveller. Claudius is an exception to the rule. For he has had no failures. Yet the man himself felt that he had failed the country at Rome. Such was his high standards that even the silver medal was considered a failure! Amazing approach, indeed.

No, most certainly he did not fail. Rather he was a glorious example of an ideal champion sportsman: charming, modest, selfless apart from being a magical wielder of the hockey wand. The memory of the dignified self still remains a shining model for every aspiring sportsman.