As we celebrate India winning an Olympic medal in hockey after 41 years, let's remember Jaipal Singh Munda, who was the captain of the first Indian hockey team to win an Olympic gold — at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.

First point to note is that he was a leader.
He did not play the final following a squabble with management (most of them British) about the treatment of Indian players.

On the day India established themselves as the bastion of world hockey, the captain of their team, the man who had brought it all together, was nowhere near the stadium. In his absence, India beat the Netherlands 3-0. The day was May 26, 1928 and it was the gold medal match at the Amsterdam Olympics. The Olympic Games website credits Major Dhyanchand with two of those goals. The third is uncredited. It makes no mention of the captain at all because a few days before that game Jaipal Singh Munda returned to England, following a squabble with management (most of them British) about the treatment of the Indian players in the squad. 

At 25, fresh from becoming the first Indian to win his blue playing hockey for Oxford, Munda turned up at the Olympics despite having his leave rejected while training as a probationer in the Indian Civil Services.

After the Games, Munda dabbled in hockey almost as an extracurricular activity, something to keep the mind fit and the spirit going. He helped start Mohun Bagan’s hockey team, served as Secretary at the Bengal Hockey Association, worked with grassroot sport and was, for a brief while a member of the Indian Sports Council. He never played for India again, wrote Vaibhav Raghunathan.

He never played for India after 1928 games. He was a member of the Indian constitutent assembly as well.