Balbir Singh Junior, former India hockey player, dies

Balbir Singh Junior, who was part of the silver medal-winning 1958 Asian Games Indian hockey team, died at the age of 88 on Tuesday. "My father passed away in sleep on Sunday morning due to heart failure," his daughter Mandeep Samra said.

Born at Sansarpur in Jalandhar, he took up hockey in childhood when he was around six years old. First selected to play for the Indian hockey team in 1951 during the tour of Afghanistan, he then played alongside hockey legends like Balbir Singh Junior, Leslie Claudius, Prithipal Singh, Balkishan and Charles Stephen.

After he joined the Army as an emergency commissioned officer in 1962, he retired as a major in 1984. Post-retirement, he took an interest in golf. Hockey India condoled the death of the player.

"On behalf of Hockey India, I express my deepest condolences to Balbir Singh Junior's family. His contribution to Indian hockey will always be remembered, and the hockey fraternity mourns his demise," HI President Gyanendro Ningombam said.