Former national football coach Hakim dead

Hakim ‘saab’, as he was popularly known, was 82 years old at the time of his death. He had very recently suffered a stroke after which he was admitted to a hospital in Gulbarga. In his more than five-decade association with Indian football, Hakim, a Dronacharya Awardee, has also been an assistant coach to late PK Banerjee during the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and also independently has been in charge of the national team during a tournament in Merdeka. At the domestic level, his finest hour as coach came when he guided Mahindra & Mahindra (now Mahindra United) to the Durand Cup title in 1988, beating a formidable East Bengal team.