From across the border, Shahid’s old rival recalls the battles
NEW DELHI: Indian hockey legend Mohmmed Shahid, who is battling severe liver ailment , was on Tuesday put on life support after the 56-year-old’s condition became critical.
According to family members and doctors at Medanta where he is being treated, his condition worsened late Monday after his kidneys failed to respond to dialysis. Dr Randhir Sud, chairman of the hospital’s Institute of Digestive and Hepatobiliary Sciences. “Despite intensive care, there is little improvement in his condition. His liver is not working and condition continues to be critical,” he said.
Shahid was admitted to the Gurgaon hospital earlier this month with high levels of creatinine and bilirubin. Doctors said a liver transplant, the only life-saving treatment, was not possible due to poor kidney function. The condition was aggravated after bouts of jaundice and dengue.
For the master of the hockey weave and dribble, who commanded much adulation in the 1980s, it is a far cry today from the past. “Elderly people would come up and want to kiss my hands,” Shahid once said. “‘Are these those hands that are weaving such magic?’ they’d ask. It was a humbling moment.”
Of the few visitors, his former captain and striking partner Zafar Iqbal has been a regular at the hospital, and on Tuesday concern came from across the border. Hassan Sardar, the handsome captain of Pakistan in the 1980s, expressed shock at his former rival’s state. “Yeh bade afsos ki baat hai (It is quite unfortunate to hear of this),” the 58-year-old told over the phone from Karachi. “Kya kamaal ka khiladi tha! Aisi behetreen stickwork modern hockey mein bahut kum dekhne ko milti thi. We may have been sworn rivals on the field, but I was a Shahid fan.” In between the despair, the Pakistan legend even allowed himself a chuckle or two. “All our pre-match plans would revolve around how to check Shahid and he would simply destroy it all. We could never catch him,” remembered Sardar.
“But do you know, Shahid and I were part of a dream attacking trio that could never be realised,” said Sardar. “Shahid would often tell me, ‘Hassan-bhai, had we played together in the same team, no one would have been able to touch us.’ Imagine a team where Zafar was left-in, I was centre forward and Shahid on the right…” Sardar trailed off.
Sardar was alluding to a time when India and Pakistan were keen sporting rivals and exchanges were not politically manipulated as today. In Shahid’s own words once, “Pakistan toh aise jaate they, jaise Orderly Bazaar se Kachehri…” As if it were a jaunt down the crowded lanes of his beloved Varanasi.
“He claimed all the spotlight with his dazzling performance in the memorable 1986 Test series, where he was simply magical but I had been watching him since 1982 and in my view, Shahid was the best Indian player I have played against,” Sardar said, “And this says a lot, since the ’80s Indian team was perhaps one of the best Indian hockey teams ever.”
Sardar reveals how the infamous 7-1 verdict against India in the 1982 Asian Games final is often misread. “Do you know who the man-of-match that day was? It was our 17-year-old goalkeeper, also named Shahid (Ali Khan) who made more than eight saves that day. Nobody remembers that, the scoreline should have been 7-5 or 7-6, just an indication of how good the Indian team was back then.”
When reminded of the incident, Sardar laughed. “Blind with rage, I told him, ‘Arrey, mujhe sey panga kyun le rahe ho?! Lag jayegi, toh udte hue jaoge.’ But it just wasn’t us alone. None of the European teams could ever catch him. In the Pakistan camp, we would say, ‘Yeh sabke phephre nikal deta hai, bhaga bhaga ke…”
