Daily Times

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s district Bannu has produced many brilliant field hockey players for Pakistan. Hockey has been the district’s identity. In fact, Bannu has played the role of a nursery for Pakistan hockey, producing many greats of the game. The seeds of hockey in Bannu, as in many other parts of the sub-continent, were planted by the British. Bannu was founded as Dhulipnagar in 1848 by Herbert Benjamin Edwardes. He was a lieutenant in a regiment of the East India Company’s private army which was posted there. Although the outpost was initially named after the Maharajah of Lahore at the time, the town became Edwardesabad in 1869. In 1903, it finally received its current name, Bannu. Hockey was seen as a game to attain peak physical fitness and soldiers of the British army were into the game because of this reason. Watching soldiers in action, Bannu’s indigenous youth was also inspired to play this game. Little did they know then that hockey will become a source of pride for the area.

After Abdul Hameed ‘Hameedi’, Bannu’s second son to attain legendary status was Abdul Rasheed Junior, the younger brother of Hameedi. Originally a right-in like his illustrious brother, he was converted into an opportunistic centre-forward by Pakistan hockey great Brigadier Manzoor Hussain Atif. He turned out to be a predator availing even half chances. In his first big tournament, the 1968 Olympics, he was joint top-scorer of the gold medal winning team. Rasheed Junior was again Pakistan’s top-scorer at the 1972 Olympics. In between, he also earned a World Cup winners medal in its inaugural edition of 1971. Rasheed Junior ended his career emulating his brother by captaining Pakistan at the Olympics (Montreal, 1976). His tally of Olympic goals is just one short of Hameedi’s 16 goals. He enjoys a unique distinction in Pakistan sports history to be the only sportsman to have a complete set of Olympic medals: Gold (1968), Silver (1972) and Bronze (1976). When he called it a day, Rasheed Junior’s tally of 96 international goals was a Pakistan record at the time.

Like Hameedi, Rasheed Junior also had a managerial spell with the Pakistan hockey team. And he achieved one distinction that even eluded Hameedi – managing Pakistan to a global title, World Cup 1994. He was also the manager of the 1994 victorious FIH Champions Trophy team. Rasheed Junior lives with his family in Islamabad.

Published in Daily Times, August 30^th 2017.