Avtar Singh Sohal, affectionately known as Tari, was born in Nairobi, Kenya. He was educated at City Primary School, Nairobi and Duke of Gloucester School Nairobi where he played Hockey and Cricket for the School teams.
After School he joined Barclays Bank and played hockey for the Bank team. He later joined Sikh Union Nairobi Club and gained his first international cap for Kenya when he was selected to play against South Africa at the age of 19.
He was a member of Sikh Union Nairobi Club when they first won the M R D'Souza Gold Cup in Kenya in 1959.
He was selected for the Rome 1960 Olympic Games.
He was appointed as the National Team captain in 1962 for a Test series against Pakistan, and from then he led Kenya for a period of 10 years during which time Kenya were amongst the best teams in the World and they played India and Pakistan regularly, both home and away.
He captained his countries Olympic teams at Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972 and was also captain at the 1st World Cup in Barcelona in 1971 where Kenya finished fourth, narrowly losing 1 - 2 after extra time to India in the Bronze medal match.
After retiring from playing, Avtar took over coaching and was Kenya's Coach from 1978 to 1988. He was the team coach at Los Angeles Olympic Games. In addition to Coaching, he took up Umpiring and was awarded his FIH international Umpires badge in 1980.
He was appointed on FIH's Development and Coaching Committee in 1988 and was a Judge at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.
Tari was cited in the the 1984 Guinness Book of Records as: ‘Most International Appearances: Avtar Singh Sohal (b. 22 March 1938) represented Kenya 167 times between 1957 and 1972'
He was awarded the International Hockey Federation's ‘Diploma of Merit' for distinguished services rendered to the Hockey's world governing body by Juan Angel Calzado, President of the International Hockey Federation, on 23 November 2000.
He is still active, currently being involved with Coaching Juniors in Kenya.