“India Is a Powerhouse”: Dutch Legend Bovelander’s Drag-Flick Masterclass Steals the Show at the ACT
Floris Jan Bovelander didn’t come to Jalandhar just to watch. The Dutch legend turned up at the Asian Champions Trophy, called India a powerhouse of world hockey, and then got straight to work with the next generation.
Bovelander, the 1996 Olympic gold medallist and 1990 World Cup winner, was in town on Monday 2 November on a personal invitation from Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He said he was astonished and honoured that Mann remembered him and invited him personally, and that the gesture showed the Chief Minister’s love for hockey. It’s easy to see why the invitation went out. Bovelander scored 215 goals in 241 internationals for the Netherlands between 1985 and 1996, and his drag flick was feared everywhere.
His verdict on India was blunt. He said India and Pakistan played a pivotal role in popularising hockey in the Olympic movement, and that Indian hockey simply can’t be imagined without Punjab’s contribution. Most of his enduring memories of Indian hockey, he said, were linked to players from Punjab, particularly Sikh athletes. That’s not a polite tourist line. That’s a man who played against India’s great sides talking about what he actually remembers.
Then he did something better than talk. Bovelander led a hands-on drag-flick session for 37 coaches from Punjab and young trainees of the Surjit Hockey Academy, run by the Punjab government. Olympic medallist Gurjant Singh, Dronacharya Award winner Jiwanjot Singh Teja and coach Avtar Singh were there too. For a room full of coaches, that’s gold. The drag flick wins tournaments now, and learning it from one of the men who basically invented the modern version beats any video.
The Punjab Sports Department felicitated him for his contribution to the sport, and Bovelander confirmed he’ll be at the Mohali leg as well on 4 and 5 November. So the knockouts get a legend in the stands. For our money, that’s the perfect guest for a final week: a man who knows exactly how hard it is to win a big tournament, watching a side trying to do it unbeaten.
