Olympic Games:

Balbir Singh Kullar (Punjab / Police) represented India at the 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games.
 

Balbir Singh Kullar, like many other hockey players from Punjab, belongs to Sansarpur village of Jalandhar district in Punjab.

He represented Punjab and Punjab Police, with whom he served most of his career.

He studied in Cantonment Board High School and DAV College, Jalandhar.

He was the captain of the All India Schools for three years from 1957.

A member of the Combined University team, he also represented his state while still a college student. This was an association which was to last for eighteen long years.

During this period he also played for Calcutta’s Mohun Bagan Club and in the early years, for the Railways. Balbir followed the path of his more famous namesake, senior Balbir who captained India, and became one of the best inside forwards in the country.

In 1963, he joined the Punjab Police as Assistant Sub-Inspector and the same year played his first international at Lyons in France.

It was also in 1963 that he toured East Germany, West Germany, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Italy, New Zealand, England, East Africa and Kenya as part of the Indian team.

Balbir was a member of the winning Asian Games team in Bangkok in 1966.

He represented India in the European Tour in 1967.

From 1968-1975 Balbir was a senior member of the All India Police team and served as a captain. He was selected for the national camp in 1976 but could not attend it because of administrative reasons. Thereafter he continued to serve the cause of Police hockey.

Promoted to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of the Police in 1981, he was selected in the IPS cadre in 1987 and is presently serving as a commandant of a battalion in Jalandhar.

He was among the few veterans recalled to receive the Arjuna Award for rendering life-time contribution for the promotion of Indian hockey.