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Indian sport is widely believed by more democratic-minded folks to have been unfairly dominated by cricket. From pay scale to media hype to national importance, cricketers appear to have enjoyed a much more privileged treatment. If this can be attributed to the relative success that the Indian cricket team struck during the 1980s and ‘90s on the backs of individual greats — the Devs, Gavaskars, Tendulkars, Gangulies etc. — we forget that hockey, India’s national sport till 2012 when it was stripped of even that token honour, too has produced if not flaunted heroes of its own.
Let’s take a moment to recall Mohammed Shahid, the Indian hockey legend who passed away on July 20, 2016. One of the few to have played hockey for India at a very young age, he took the hockey world by storm and won many a heart during his prime — born in 1960, he played for India against France in the Junior Hockey World Cup in 1979. He was instrumental in India winning gold in the 1980 Olympics, silver in the 1982 Asiad, and bronze in the 1986 Asiad and captained the side for a couple of years as well. He was conferred the Arjuna award in 1981 and the Padma Shri in 1986.
It was during the four-nation tournament in Malaysia that he got noticed by the then Indian skipper V. Baskaran and was drafted into the Olympic team. The rest is history. It was during this tournament that he left popular and talented Pakistan players — Akhtar Rasool, Manzoor, Hassan Sadar, Hanif Khan and Akhtar Rasool — stunned with his stick-work.
If the Indian cricketer is famed for skill in playing spin, the subcontinental hockey-player’s forte has historically been dribbling. And Shahid was among the foremost wizards of this art.
Around the time that the Indian cricket team won the 1983 World Cup, the interest in Indian hockey began to wane. Yet, Shahid’s game stayed doggedly true to itself and won him fans across the country.
India won 9 Olympic gold medals between 1928 and 1980, dominating international hockey, and not a single gold since. In fact, India came last out of the 12 teams in the 1912 Olympics. Thanks to the change of playing surface from grass to astro-turf, effective the 1976 Olympics, Asian hockey teams started experiencing debacle after debacle.
The European and Australian teams ensured the playing surface was changed to suit their style or forgive their deficiency. The synthetic nature of the turf forced a change in playing style, and dribbling or short passes were replaced by long passes at lightning speed. Since then, it has been disadvantage Asia.
India and Pakistan slipped out of the Top-5 hockey nations. Asian teams could not match the money power of the Europeans who not only laid hundreds of turfs but also ensured their players were able to access these from a very young age. On the other hand, there were very few turfs available in India and Pakistan and their young crop never got their first exposure to turf till they were 20 or older. While grass, on which hockey had been played internationally for nearly a century, allowed skilled Indian and Pakistani players to trap the ball, dribble and pass, astro-turf suited the physique of the European and Australian hockey players blessed with raw power rather than technical skill.
Around this time, the Indian cricket team won the 1983 World Cup and the interest in Indian hockey began to wane. Yet, Shahid’s game stayed doggedly true to itself and won him fans across the country. It was in these tough times that Shahid shone not only for India, but for Asian hockey. Often single-handedly, he gave the Europeans a run for their money with the traditional style of hockey, infused with loads of self belief. It was sheer magic.
Though astro-turf was alien to him, Shahid would leave defenders confused, evading them with ease, and earned the reputation of being the most elusive forward of the era, one where India was scarcely feared by its opponents. Whether it was creating and earning a penalty corner or firing a field goal, he was India’s Man Friday. His sharp ball control would leave many a western player flat-footed. Add to that his excellent reading of the game, and he was a huge icon.
To cope up with the astro-turf, he came up with the half-push/half-hit stroke, which involves hitting the ball using the same grip used for dribbling. This shot came with very little back-lift, allowing the ball to be slammed towards a teammate in an early and accurate pass. This technique, unprecedented of at the time in players' repertoire, was pioneered and perfected by Shahid. Inspired by this, the great Dhanraj Pillai became an ardent fan of Shahid’s and never would miss an opportunity to employ this stroke.
Once Shahid interrupted the long passes, he was an artist, whose only job was to dazzle. The geometry of his angles and dodges was designed to draw the opposition’s entire defence out. The rest of the forwards would get a through-ball, but only after Shahid made a mockery of the defenders. When Indian hockey was at its lowest, fans went to watch Shahid, the Mercurial Forward who carried the torch of the Indian dribbling tradition.
When the whole of the sub-continent played local tourneys on grass and often appeared clueless on the astro-turf in international competitions, Shahid seemed to stay true to himself and was confidence personified.
It is sad that the Indian hockey federation failed to utilise the services of such a man post his retirement. Indian hockey could do worse than cultivating the Shahid way, marrying self-belief with skill in the face of stacked-up odds.
