Karachi brigade gives impetus to dying sport

lahore, FEB 24: Suhail Abbas, the man with the dazzling drag flicks, is leading the charge of the Karachi brigade in Pakistan hockey toda...

lahore, FEB 24: Suhail Abbas, the man with the dazzling drag flicks, is leading the charge of the Karachi brigade in Pakistan hockey today. The sudden influx of Karachi youngsters in the national squad has become the talking point amongst former players and Pakistan media alike. In fact, after the exit of the great Shahbaz Ahmed and his illustrious brother-in-law Tahir Zaman, hockey fans have found something exciting to debate about. There are as many as eight players from Karachi in the current Pakistan team, which had even prompted some sceptics to point fingers at the selection committee.

Most of Pakistan’s hockey talent comes from Punjab and Karachi, with the former province always having the lion’s share. In fact, the small town of Gorja, from where Shahbaz and Tahir come, has been the main nursery that has churned out international players by dozens. A couple of years back, seven of the Pakistan team came from Gorja. In what is seen as an interesting change in trend, Gorja has just threerepresentatives in the present squad — Md Sarwar, Md Nadeem, Waseem Ahmed.

While the dominance of Karachi boys in national team has raised hope in the commercial city, some of the old-timers feel that it is a passing phase as hockey is no longer played as passionately as it was a couple of decades ago. Olympian Safdar Abbas, uncle of Sohail, said that there was no dearth of talent but competition had thinned and it was difficult to sustain a steady stream. “The death of club hockey in Karachi has meant the death of tradition, the death of competition,” Safdar said.

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Olympian Islauddin Siddiqui expressed happiness at the fact that Karachi was once again asserting its presence in Pakistan hockey. “Karachi has produced several great players for Pakistan, and the recent crop shows the spirit of hockey lives on in this city,” Islauddin said.

Karachi did not have a tradition of hockey in the pre-partition days. It was players like Aziz-ur-Rehman, Chacha Qayoom, Khwaja Taki, Azza Sahadat and Jamshed, whomade hockey popular after they migrated to Pakistan in the early fifties.

Most of these names came from places, which were established hockey centres in India Lucknow, Bhopal and Delhi. The presence of so many talented players led to an increase in hockey activity in Karachi, and gave birth to competitive club hockey. “PP Fernandes, who played in 1928 Olympics along with Dhyan Chand, were the people who inspired a generation to pick up the game,” recalled Alauddin Ghauri, a senior sports journalist based in Karachi. The fifties and sixties saw some great players like Anwar Ahmed Khan, Qazi Hasan, Asgar Ali Khan and Abdul Ali Khan play for Pakistan.Anwar Ahmed Khan, who still takes a keen interest in the game, said the 1960 Olympics gold started the downfall of hockey in Karachi. “Departmental teams like Pakistan International Airlines, Customs took affiliation from PHF and gave jobs to all the talented players. This killed club hockey, with one team having three best players for one position. At thesame time, only players who were down the hill played club hockey.” Karachi still produced greats like Hassan Sardar, but Punjab soon became the centre of excellence.

Karachi today has four astroturfs, which are in constant use, while one owned by a steel mill lies unused as their team has been disbanded due to financial cuts.

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Talking about the current state, Anwar Khan lamented that most of the youngers wanted to play cricket, and those who played hockey were interested only in jobs. “Given such a scenario, if eight boys have come into the national side, it is good news. This will give impetus to the game here,” Khan said.

The Karachi boys in Pak team: Suhail Abbas, Ahmed Alam, Naveed Asim, Mohd Khalid Jr, Ijaz Rasool, Mohammed Anis, Mubassir Mukhtar, Asad Qureishi.