The midfield general

In his book on Tamil Nadu hockey players, K Arumugam has made an interesting observation. And that is about Tamil Nadu’s monopoly over the midfield in Indian hockey. He mentions P Krishnamurthy in his time was irreplaceable for right-half position and V Baskaran dominated in the difficult area of left-half. Then he goes to Mohammed Riaz in the 90s calling him a “great centre-half”. The author also recalls the days of Attatullah Khan in the 60s and Rajasekaran in the 70s. 

If you look at all the midfield generals from Tamil Nadu, the two names that stand out are Vasudevan Baskaran and Mohammed Riaz, who had played in different eras. If the 1980 gold by Baskaran is by far the best by any Indian captain in the last 36 years, for a Tamil Nadu hockey player there is nothing to show in the last 15 years except Riaz playing in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. 

Hockey is not the same it was both for India and Tamil Nadu. The game has taken a northward journey and today it is difficult to find a player from Tamil Nadu to don the Indian colours. Though Adam Sinclair went on to play for India (2004) once after Riaz, he did not have a significant stint in the senior team. In fact, Riaz had represented India in both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. 

However, Riaz does not think all is lost for Indian hockey. “Look at the team in Ipoh for the Azlan Shah tournament. There is a lot of talent there,” says the former international. He was part of the team that missed the semi-final by a whisker in the Sydney Olympics, where one match (against Poland) was a disaster and since then he was back in the Indian side as coach at the 2012 London Olympics. Right now, he is coaching Tamil Nadu for the nationals in UP. 

Riaz’s father Mohammed Nabi had played hockey and was an international umpire. His brother Nawaz had played for junior India. So he had a strong hockey family. “I was playing for Universal Recreation Club, owned by my father. We have practice sessions in the morning. My father was the coach and he used to send us back home if we were late. He was stricter with me and my brother as he felt we should be the example for all players,” recalls Riaz. 

Riaz feels the Azlan Shah exposure is good for the Indian team preparing for the Olympics. “They should believe in themselves and that is very important,” says Riaz. And he has the same message for Tamil Nadu too.