Ashish Ballal
# Ashish Ballal

Ashish Kumar Ballal (born 8 October 1970) is a former Indian goalkeeper of field hockey. He represented India in 275 international matches in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1990 World cup, 3 Champions Trophy tournaments (1989, 1993, 1996), 2 Asian Games (1994, 1998) and 2 Asia Cups (1989, 1993). Ballal became a household name in India when he saved two tie-breaker goals in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games final against South Korea. India, captained by Ballal, went on to win the Asiad hockey gold at Bangkok after a gap of 32 years.

For his outstanding contribution to the game of hockey, Ballal was bestowed with the Arjuna Award in 1997 by the Government of India And the Eklavya Award in 2000 by the government of Karnataka. He coaches hockey players of India. In a laudable effort, he runs the Ashish Ballal Hockey Academy in Bangalore as his way of giving back to the game of hockey in India.

## Personal life

Ballal hails from the Bunt community and is married to fellow Bunt Sahana. He is a father to two sons, Vansh Ballal and Yash Ballal.

