KARACHI The launch of hockey Olympian and former Pakistan captain Islahuddin Siddiqui's autobiography Dash Through My Life saw an impressive turnout of sports personalities and other important dignitaries at a local hotel here on Wednesday evening. The function saw a number Islahuddin's friends and colleagues eulogising his service for Pakistan hockey and appreciating his efforts to bring out a book about his career which they said would make interesting reading for all.
Speaking on the occasion, hockey great Hasan Sardar said that he considered it his bad luck not to have made the team under Islahuddin's captaincy.
'I came into the Pakistan side only after his retirement. Still, I used to watch him practice during camp in Lahore when I was a student at the Aitchison College. I got a chance of watching him more closely when I made the junior team. He was a captain who led from the front,' he said.
'He was a specialist in dashing inside the 'D' during short-corners. Try as they might, the other teams just couldn't break his dash. Even the great penalty-corner specialist of Holland, Paul Litgens told me once that I can beat any of your goalkeepers but not Islah, who dashes in to clear all our efforts,' Hasan recalled.
Co-author Humair Ishtiaq in his welcome address claimed that he discovered the soft-hearted man in Islah during his two-and-a-half year compilation of the book.
Another legendary hockey personality the Flying Horse Samiullah, while praising Islah, said that he is yet to figure out the man in the 30 years that he has known him but he was indeed a fine captain.
Paying his tribute to the great sportsman, senior Olympian Waheed Khan said 'Islah was a weapon in the team that we utilised when all the European teams would be scoring through penalty-corners. He would be there to save all those penalty-corners, even when suffering from a broken finger or broken teeth as he did in the 1978 World Cup and Asian Games. It was an honour to have managed the team that was captained by him.'
Olympian Anwar Ahmed Khan said 'We were the ones who won so many titles for Pakistan during our time and our heads would hang low with shame when that kind of performance couldn't be repeated for nearly 10 years in the late '60s and the '70s. Then Islah came on the hockey scene and we were champions again.'
Others who spoke on the occasion included squash legend Jahangir Khan, cricketer Zaheer Abbas, MNA Khushbakht Shujaat and Sindh Minister for Sports Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, who was also the chief guest on the occasion.
