Daily Times

LAHORE: Qazi Musarrat Hussain, a member of the Pakistan hockey team which won country`s first ever Olympic medal (silver) in any sports at the 1956 Olympics, breathed his last in Karachi on Thursday. He was 86. Equally adept at the positions of right half and left half, Musarrat presented a distinct figure on the field- he was left-handed so held the stick with a unique grip. Born in what is now India, his family moved to Lahore after the partition. Musarrat studied in Government College Lahore which always had a strong hockey team studded with internationals and potential internationals. He also represented the Punjab University team. Later, he joined Pakistan Customs which had one of the strongest hockey teams in the domestic circuit. He hence moved to Karachi where he lived till the end. Apart from the 1956 Olympics, Musarrat also played for Pakistan at the 1958 Asian Games where Pakistan won the gold medal thus relegating India to second position for the first time in a title tournament. At the national camp for the 1960 Olympics, he sustained a knee injury which turned out to be career ending. He never recovered from that and his domestic hockey career also ended. Later, he concentrated on his job in Customs and reached the rank of Assistant Collector. QaziMusarrat was one of the two survivors from the 1956 Olympics team. Now, only left winger Mutiullah is among us.