The Photograph of the Month for May 2006 features the Indian hockey team playing Japan in the 1966 Asian Games hockey semi-finals in Bangkok.
The 1966 Bangkok Games resulted in the first ever Asiad gold for India, who did not concede a single goal in the entire tournament. India's match results were:
The 1966 Indian Asiad hockey team had 3 Balbir Singh's - Balbir Singh (Punjab), Balbir Singh (Railways) and Col. Balbir Singh (Services). The player kneeling on the ground in the photograph is Col. Balbir Singh (Services).
Balbir Singh (Services) joined the Army in 1965, and represented Services in the National Hockey Championship from 1965 to 1974. He captained the Services team that won the Bombay Gold Cup in 1971.
Balbir rose to the rank of Colonel in the Indian Army. He was the third hockey player from Sansarpur, the nursery of Indian Hockey, to receive the Arjuna Puraskar, after Udham Singh and Jagjeet Singh.
