Mumbai, April 24 (IANS) Former India international and Mumbai Hockey Association (MHA) secretary Gurbax Singh Grewal, who was a member of the national team that won a bronze medal in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, died of a heart attack in Chandigarh on Saturday evening. He was 84.

Gurbax Singh, brother of Olympian Balbir Singh, retired as Sports Officer with the Western Railways in Mumbai and was elected as Honorary Secretary of The Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd as part of a team that included former India captain and coach Joaquim Carvalho.

Born on April 1, 1942, in Lyallpur, Punjab Province of British India, near present-day Faisalabad in Pakistan, Gurbax came to Mumbai in his 20s to play hockey for the Western Railways in Mumbai. He, along with his brother Balbir Singh, was part of the Indian team that won a bronze medal in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.

A speedy forward, Gurbax Singh, after playing for Western Railways at the local level and Indian Railways at the national level, coached the various Mumbai teams for many years. He was also associated with the Indian women’s hockey team for some time.

After retiring from Western Railways as Sports Officer, Gurbax contested elections for the Mumbai Hockey Association and was elected Honorary Secretary in 2010. The renovation of the MHA’s Mahindra Stadium happened during his tenure after the MHA and MCA reached an agreement on the transfer of land to the cricket association to install the floodlights for the Wankhede Stadium ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

–IANS

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