Balbir Singh Kular, a 1968 Mexico Olympics bronze medallist, recalls the time he played against the Netherlands at Police Lines in Jalandhar in 1967.

Col (retd) Kular, who hails from nearby Sansarpur village, one of the main nurseries of hockey, will be a guest at Tuesday’s opening ceremony of the Asian Champions Trophy at the city’s Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium. Mentioning that it will be the first time many of the members of the current Indian team will be playing in their home state, he believes better late than never.

Kular remembers youngsters from his village coming on bicycles to watch the Indian team play almost 60 years ago, and anticipates the same excitement for witnessing the likes of skipper Harmanpreet Singh in action. More than half of the Indian squad for the tournament is made up of players from Punjab.

“Players from Sansarpur and across Punjab came to see the match. At that time too, more than half of the Indian team was from Punjab.…