Two former stars look back at hockey’s glory days

After the Liberation War, hockey was tipped as the sport holding the most potential after the ever-popular football. While, unlike football, hockey was not played in every district, it also had hundreds of thousand followers across the country as Bangladesh were not much behind other Asian giants in terms of standard with the performance of former hockey players still etched in the minds of supporters. In times of social distancing, like everyone else those celebrity performers are also counting the days in home quarantine and in the absence of any action, they have taken a trip down memory lane by turning over pages of old albums filled with sweet moments of their playing career in international hockey.

This reporter approached former national players Mahabub Harun and Rafiqul Islam Kamal to learn of their cherished moments in their international career. Kamal joined the national team in 1993, while Mahbub Harun's international career started in 1988 and ended in 1999, two years before Kamal called time from international hockey in 2001.

Bangladesh team members (R)during 1993 Asia Cup in Japan. Photo: COLLECTED

"As I am confined to house with no tasks, I often browse through old albums which takes me back to the beautiful past of my playing career," was the humble admission from Mahabub Harun, who is still involved with hockey as a coach.

Bangladesh had some memorable results against Pakistan, South Korea and Italy and often gave big teams like India, Japan and others a run for their money, and the words "remember '93" still drives Harun to recall the sweet memory of their Asia Cup encounter against South Korea.

"A few days back, I saw the picture of defender Robiuddin and that took me back to the memory of the 1993 Asia Cup in Japan where we came from behind to hold Korea to a 1-1 draw with Robiuddin levelling the margin by converting a penalty corner. After that 1-1 draw, whenever we faced Korea, we always heard two words from South Korean players, who said 'remember 1993'," said Mahabub with a laugh, adding that the Indian coach Zafar Iqbal gave all Bangladesh players new sticks following the outcome.

Rafiqul Islam Kamal made his international debut in the 1993 Asia Cup and recalled the minor hardships they faced with Japanese cuisine before finding deliverance in the taste of conventional Bangladeshi food at an expatriate doctor's house.

"On Pohela Boishakh, one of my friends -- BKSP coach Jahidul Islam Raju -- sent me three pictures of the 1993 Asia Cup which took me back to our hardships when faced with food in Japan. It was my first tour with the senior national team but we were really in trouble with food at restaurants," said Kamal. "Many Bangladeshi expatriates came to watch our matches and of them, one doctor, I can't recall his name, came to learn that we could not take our meals properly. One day he invited all of us [around 25 members] to his tiny apartment to serve us food like plane rice, mashed potato, eggplant, shutki, beef, fish bhuna and many other items."

The youngest member of that squad, Kamal recalled that all of them had finished the food in no time and some were still left wanting, forcing the doctor to silently shop afresh and cook again.

"The way this unknown doctor treated us, I will never forget it, though I have since travelled a lot of places and attended official dinners during my international career," said player-turn-organiser Kamal.

Just two years later, Bangladesh had another memorable result in the SAF Games where they surrendered the lead thrice to play out a 3-3 draw against the then world champions Pakistan, and Mahabub believed Bangladesh were deprived of an outstanding result against Pakistan in Madras, as Indian umpire Shakil awarded a penalty stroke apparently for no reason.

"We also played beyond Asia when we took part in the six-nation pre-qualifying round of the World Cup in 1996. We beat hosts and eventual group champions Italy 5-4 in the first match. After the triumph over Italy, whenever we went outside for dinner, shopping or other purposes, the local people appreciated us saying: you beat us [Italy]," recalled Mahabub.

Mahabub and Kamal said that the Bangladesh youth (Under-21) team had always been the stronger side, who even played the semifinals of the Junior Asia Cup in 1988 and beat India in the 1992 edition, but the promising boys could never carry their momentum to the national hockey team.

Mahabub believes the young players' early entry in the national team, faulty system of training by local coaches, having no foreign coaches and a lack of a concrete strategy from the federation were the main reasons behind the national team's dipping performance at international level.

"We worked hard a lot but not in a systematic way, which is now followed. If we had a foreign coach then, our hockey could have reached a strong point and there would have been less chances of going downhill," said Mahabub.

"I think we started going backwards in 1992 when, except Lulu Bhai, all senior players including Khaza Rahmatullah, Jummon Lusai, Barkatullah Bulu, Kanchan and many others were dropped from the national team and junior players [U-21 squad] were promoted to the senior squad to represent Bangladesh in a tournament in India. A big vacuum was created but never filled up. Since then, hockey has been falling behind but the combination of senior and youth players could have made the national team more balanced and stronger," opined player-turned-coach Mahabub, who guided the national hockey team several times since 2006.