Akshay Kumar condoles demise of hockey player Balbir Singh

Actor Akshay Kumar on Monday expressed grief over the demise of veteran hockey player Balbir Singh.

Kumar took to Twitter to post a picture of himself with Balbir Singh.

"Saddened to hear about the demise of hockey legend #BalbirSingh ji. Have had the good fortune of meeting him in the past, such an amazing personality," he said in a tweet.

"My heartfelt condolences to his family," his tweet further said.

The veteran hockey player had suffered a cardiac arrest on May 12 and after that, he suffered two more cardiac arrests during the course of his admission in the hospital.

"Balbir Singh passed away this morning," his grandson Kabir said in a statement on Monday.

Balbir Singh was a three-time Olympic gold medal-winning hockey legend.

He played a key role in India's Olympic victories in London (1948), as a vice-captain in Helsinki (1952) and as the captain in Melbourne (1956).

In his illustrious playing career from 1947-1958, Balbir won 61 international caps and scored a whopping 246 goals.

He was also the manager of the 1975 World Cup-winning team.

( With inputs from ANI )