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Leslie Claudius - Melbourne, June 2010

A FRIENDLY CHAT WITH HOCKEY LEGEND, LESLIE CLAUDIUS

Leslie Claudius, India's hockey legend of international fame, spoke fondly of his impressive career, his family & growing up in Bilaspore to Ken & Jenny Sequeira (Rangers Club), in Melbourne, June 2010.
Leslie, credited his entry into the world of hockey to the "Hand of God". He started his sporting career as a soccer player at the Sporting Centre at Kharakpore where, during a practice session between two hockey teams preparing for the Beighton Cup, Leslie played on one of the teams that was short of a player. His amazing style gained him recognition & the rest is history. His hockey playing days span from pre partition tournaments in Bombay to representing India in 4 Olympic games, playing domestic hockey for Bengal & Calcutta Customs. He figured in the Guiness Book of World Records for maximum number of Olympic medals in hockey (3 gold, 1 silver) & was honoured with a Padma Shri Award in 1971. After his retirement, Leslie was Team Manager for the hockey team at the Asian Games in 1974 & 1978 & was a member of the Selection Panel of the Hockey Federation for a while.

In all of this, Leslie, is a humble man, who also highlighted the support he received from his team mates, fans, friends & the press.


AUSTRALIA THE COUNTRY I CHOSE TO CALL MY OWN

In 1968 at 25 years of age, I had the choice of three countries to migrate to, - The UK. Canada or Australia, I chose Australia.

I arrived in Australia on the 8 th .of March '68, and started work on the 30 th . March, the Company I worked for in India- MICO (BOSCH) made sure I had a job to come to in Melbourne. In those days jobs were plentiful in Australia, and there was a shortage of tradespeople.

To me Australia was God's own Country. The climate was great, the air so clean and fresh, the water so pure and in abundance. Masalas and coriander were hard to get.

Within a month I applied for my fiancé to migrate to this great land called Australia. Gloria came here on a marriage visa- arrived on the 2 nd . of December '68 , two of her  brothers accompanied her , we got married on the 21 st of December '68.

At that time there were very few Anglo Indians in this country and I had not made many close friends in the nine months I was here on my own, but we had 35 Anglo Indians and 6 Australians at our reception – some of them we were meeting for the first time, but it was great and our circle of friends has grown to many thousands right through out the country. In 1969 we got our our certificates in the mail – we were now Australian citizens, I relinquished my British passport for an Australian passport.

Our families followed and in total we sponsored around 48 people – family and friends to this great country, - it was easy in those days. The White Australia policy was still an issue and the Prime Minister of the day admitted it, but it did not seem to affect the Anglo Indians, because we tend to mix in well we love our music, our sport, the occasional drink, and we speak English fluently.

Gloria and my self have lived in Australia all our married life, on the 21 st December '08 we celebrated our 40 th . Wedding- Anniversary. Boy have we seen some changes. We have three sons, seven grand children and between our two families and the friends we sponsored, we can nearly equal the population of Tasmania.

We have traveled the length and breadth of this vast country and many overseas countries but to me Melbourne Australia will always be my own.

Sam Bamford