Bharat Kumar Chettri (born 15 December 1981 in

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

) is an Indian

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player. He is the

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

of the Indian hockey team.

Career

Chettri's professional career in field hockey began after he joined the

Sports Authority of India The Sports Authority of India, SAI, was set up in 1984 to carry forward the legacy of the 1982 Asian Games held in New Delhi under the Department of Sports. SAl has been entrusted with promoting sport in India and achieving sporting excellen ...

's Centre of Excellence in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

in 1998. He made his debut in international hockey in 2001 playing in the Prime Minister's Gold Cup tournament in

Dhaka, Bangladesh Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

. He was first appointed the captain of the Indian national team in October 2011 for the four-nation

Super Series The Super Series were exhibition games between Soviet teams and NHL teams that took place on the NHL opponents' home ice in North America from 1976 to 1991. The Soviet teams were usually club teams from the Soviet hockey league. The exception ...

and an international tournament in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He was the captain of the 18-member Indian squad at the 2012 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, which won the bronze medal. Chettri led the 16-member Indian hockey squad in the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London. Following poor performances at the Olympics, Chettri,

Sandeep Singh Sandeep Singh (born 27 February 1986) is an Indian professional field hockey player from Haryana and an ex-captain of the Indian national hockey team. He generally features as a full back and is a penalty corner specialist for the team. He ...

and Shivendra Singh were dropped from the squad.

Hockey India League

In the auction of the first edition of the

Hockey India League Hockey India League is a professional field hockey league in India. It is organized by Hockey India, the governing body for the sport in India. It is considered one of the major sports leagues of the country. It was founded in 2013 as a part ...

, Chettri was bought by Punjab Warriors for $19,000 with his base price being $18,500. He went unsold in the first round and was bought in the second round of auction.

Awards

* Banga Ratna in 2015 * Banga Bibhushan in 2016

References

External links

Bharat Chettri's interview on ESPN-Star Sports

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chettri, Bharat Living people 1981 births People from Kalimpong district Field hockey players from West Bengal World Series Hockey players Field hockey players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic field hockey players for India Indian Gorkhas Asian Games medalists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 2002 Asian Games Field hockey players at the 2006 Asian Games Field hockey players at the 2010 Asian Games Indian male field hockey players Asian Games silver medalists for India Asian Games field hockey players for India Asian Games bronze medalists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games field hockey players for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists in field hockey Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Recipients of the Rajyotsava Award 2010 Field hockey players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Recipients of the Dhyan Chand Award 2006 Men's Hockey World Cup players Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games