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• One year after the Asiad final.

Wherever I went, people would knowingly or unknowingly introduce me as, ‘Mr Negi, man of seven goals.’ That was a blot on my life and mind. It was very sad.

• Frankly, on Astroturf seven goals can be scored once the defence cracks up, because it is such a fast surface. After that particular game, we’ve scored seven now, we have conceded six or seven goals many times against Australia, Germany, Spain.

Actually, India was playing Pakistan on home soil in Delhi and people had paid up to Rs 1,000 for a hundred-rupee ticket. I don’t blame the people.

• How did your association treat you?

The players were always with me; they knew I was not at fault. About the officials, I don’t want to say anything.

• You became the fall guy who could be blamed for everything. Frankly, a goalkeeper comes into play only after the defence has failed. For all those seven goals, somebody got past our entire defence. Our defence crumbled that day.

There was some problem in the defence. In the morning they announced one team, and in the afternoon a different team played. A very good friend, Rajinder Singh, was a full-back. Unfortunately, he had a very bad knee that day and couldn’t play well. There were a lot of problems. But the whole team played badly. Just eight days later, however, we went and beat Pakistan.

• So you could have done better if you’d all been relaxed rather than charged up like that.

Of course.

• I see that you don’t hold very much against your defenders who let you down that day. Rajinder Singh figures in Chak De India.

No. Rajinder is a very good friend of mine. It happens. It’s not his mistake. It’s the mistake of the team management. They played him despite his injury. Everybody knew it. How could they have overlooked such a big mistake.

• He has a cameo in Chak Dey India, isn’t it?

Yes, he’s clapping when his team wins against the women’s hockey team.

• He’s the coach of the Indian men’s team that beats the women’s team.

He’s a very nice man. He was top scorer in the World Cup held in Mumbai. He’s a great full-back. But such things have happened in the past.

• He’s also a penalty corner specialist. Many squad mates, many full-backs are in the film, isn’t it?

I included them because I wanted people to be able to identify our great players.

• Zafar Iqbal is there.

Zafar Iqbal is there. M.K. Kaushik is there as Pakistani coach. We have these players who play for ONGC. They are all real hockey players.

• Zafar Iqbal was your captain, who scored the first goal in that Asiad final against Pakistan.

Yes. In the film he’s the manager of my team.

• Many thought he made a mistake by scoring the first goal and provoking the Pakistanis. Tell us briefly about each of the goals.

I remember one in which the ball was scooped from the left and was bouncing in front of me and Hassan Sardar took it over my head. Somehow, the umpire allowed it. Now, I could have hit him on the face without making it too obvious.

• You could have pretended it was an accident?

He’d have gone out. And my life would have been very different. But then there’s this thing called sportsmanship. Even today I keep thinking whether I should have hit him or not.

• The game was more physical then.

Yes. I could have hit him easily and his going out would have helped the team in a big way. We could have won the match. I still think whether I should have given it to him.

• Reset his face a bit. Describe the goal that bothers you the most.

In most of the goals, the Pakistani forwards used to come easily towards the goal. I was alone and had no option but to charge. And I was good at charging. But on that day, because of the pressure, I wasn’t moving properly. I wasn’t able to do things that I could have done easily. Usually, what I do is leave one post open for the forward (to try to score) and at the last moment I block it.

• He thinks it’s empty and he’ll go for it but you know you’ll cover it. It’s a deception.

Yes, but things were not working. I should have been replaced at half-time because I was not playing well. You can make out from a player’s movement he’s not doing his best.

• So you’d sort of lost nerve.

Naturally, after three-four goals. I don’t know why the coaches didn’t replace me.

• Did you ask the coach to change you.

No. But I still think if he had changed me, I’d have played for the country for another four-five years easily.

• So basically you became the fall guy. You were dropped after that match and never picked again.

Everybody went to Australia. They won there and proved themselves. But it took me 16 years to prove myself.

• And how did you prove yourself 16 years later?

I was always involved in hockey.

• You didn’t give up.

I feel the ground is a big stress-buster. You play golf, you play hockey, anything on the ground, and when you come to the ground you forget everything else. You just see the ball. My friends, Joachim Carvalho, Marvin Fernandes, they all pulled me back to the ground. ‘You must play, you must coach,’ they said. I continued playing for Bombay, and was playing well. Then I started coaching and continued to do so.