MY STORY: Madras hockey’s magnificent Mohd. Riaz

K. ARUMUGAM & ERROL D’CRUZ

The significance of the life and times of double Olympian Mohammad Riaz lies not only in his field exploits but also inadvertently being the last of the champion hockey players that the once fertile Tamil Nadu State had produced. MJ Gopalan (1935, New Zealand tour), Earnest John-Goodsir-Cullen (1936 Olympics), triple Olympians Ranganathan Francis & Victor John Peter, Olympic bronze medalist, Munir Sait, World Cup captain Victor John Philips, Olympic captain Vasudevan Baskaran and World Cup silver medalist P Krishnamurthy formed the pantheon of the hockey haven that the State was.

In terms of producing players for the country and the laurels obtained in the domestic scene, say, National champions, the State was among the top three for almost three decades after Independence. Others being Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The glorious tradition almost came to a standstill in the 1980s. It was the rise of Md Riaz in the next decade that held the flag aloft once again. He was only the third player of the State to lead its team, the others being V Baskaran and VJ Philips. The mere fact that nobody after him got the Arjuna label or rose to lead the national side speaks for his position in history. For all that, the story of Riaz’s early struggles is worth telling.

Born into a hockey playing family, you would think that Riaz enjoyed a head start when it came to building a career in the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, he was given an experience of the travails involved in pursuing a sport when he wasn’t quite a teenager.

“You see, my father (Mohammad Nabi) was wary of fingers pointed at him for being partial towards his sons when it came to selection. As a coach and selector at the grassroots level he made sure I wasn’t in any of the inter-district or sub-junior teams,” Riaz, 49, who served the India team well for a decade reveals.

“My father told me that if I were good I would eventually get selected for state and country,” the midfielder who donned the India colours for all major events like the Olympics, the World Cup, the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, recollects. Younger brother Mohammad Nawaz represented the country as well, older sibling Mohammad Jameel wore the Tamil Nadu colours and Riaz had every dream of emulating his father and brothers. His maternal uncle is Jabbar Badshah, a perennial standby for the Olympics and Asian Games, but who donned the blue jersey on the East Africa tour in 1959.

Mohammad Riaz first wielded the stick at seven and couldn’t wait to get on to the pitch as he watched his father display his consummate skills at the Egmore Stadium (now known as Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium), Chennai. “An inside-right, he played a systematic and clean game, never indulging in a rough tackle,” Riaz reminisces. “I watched him play with the many stars of those times – V. Rajasekaran (elder brother of Moscow Olympics hero V. Baskaran) and V J Phillips (younger brother of triple Olympian VJ Peter) among them.”

“As I showed keenness to play the game, my father, also an umpire, was always encouraging but never ceased being a disciplinarian to the core,” Riaz says. “He was my coach at Universal Recreation Club and my brothers and I were treated with far more strictness than the others. We had to turn up for practice five minutes earlier than the rest. If we failed to do so, we were made to sit outside!”

Riaz attended Government Madarasa-e-Azam High School which produced many a state and India player. In time, he showed great promise as a utility player and showed his prowess in any position on the pitch except the goalkeeper’s.

But for all that, he says, he often sobbed uncontrollably as time after time he wouldn’t be selected to the age group teams in the wake of his father’s views. “This is where my mother Musthari Begum proved to be a great source of support. She always pacified me saying that I should continue working hard and play better and she never ceased caring for me, be it waking up at 3.30 in the morning to make sure I drank milk before I set out for practice or tending to injuries I picked up. She played a vital role in my development as a player,” Riaz reveals.

Riaz justified the faith reposed in him by his parents when he was selected to the Tamil Nadu team at the 1989 Junior National championships in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. To make things sweeter, he was named captain and he caught the eye with his versatility.

“They referred to me as a ‘one-man-show’ as I often helped the team overcome a deficit to win. Reports often referred to our matches as Riaz vs UP or Riaz vs Punjab. We reached the final but lost to Punjab. However, I was declared player of the tournament and my performance there was an important step towards national selection.”

Riaz was summoned to the camp for the Junior World Cup qualifiers by impressed selectors and it paved way for his senior international career when he was called up for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic camp. But he met with disappointment after being sidelined by illness. It was veritably a disappointing phase. He was selected for the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup which was cancelled because of the bay bomb blasts in Mumbai.

Riaz however bounced back and was in the team for the South African tour the following year. “It’s an unimaginable feeling playing for the country,” Riaz says. “The national flag touched my body and I realized that we representatives of the country carry the hopes and enjoy the respect of hundreds of millions of our people. It instills courage and a strong sense of responsibility. It also reminds you that the nation is one irrespective of where one may come from – East, West, North or South,” he says.

On his 21st birthday, he played biggest match of his early days — against Australia. In fact, he was one of the rare players to have played a series against the mighty Australians four times. But that was later. As of now donning the India colours brings Riaz a moment of reflection. “My father’s regimen, diktat and words – his discrete but restricted praise of my performances and abilities so as to prevent complacency creeping in. ‘You can do better and you need to work on your fitness’ was about all he would say and when I looked back, I realized it all helped.

“My selection to the India team was a proud moment, not just for me but also for my father. He couldn’t make it to the national team despite being an excellent player but here I was donning the country’s colours. I also remembered the role of my coach Deenadayalan, who shaped my basic skills by placing stones on the ground and making me roll and dribble the ball for hours.”

In that heady moment, there was also room for humour for Riaz. “A neighbour who saw me leave home at 4.30 each morning and disappear on my bicycle into the darkness expressed concern to my father, suggesting I was mentally ill! When I was selected to the India team, he learned what was really behind my early morning activity after reading reports in the newspapers. He promptly apologized to my father,” Riaz said with a laugh.

The Chennai lad braced for challenges in international hockey. There were joyous moments – like at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. “We won the gold medal 32 years which made it all the more memorable,” Riaz goes down memory lane.

“For me there was a crucial moment there.The final against South Korea went to the tie-breaker. I injured my shoulder during the match and was reluctant to take a penalty stroke. I expressed the reason for my unwillingness to Dhanraj Pillay, my captain. “ ‘Anna (elder brother), I feel I shouldn’t take a penalty stroke’, I said, to him. However, he insisted that I do so, saying that he has full faith in me. After receiving ice treatment, I stepped up for our second penalty stroke and I scored! We eventually won when Mukesh Kumar converted and the gold medal was ours.”

Riaz led India for the home Poland series before the Bangkok sojourn. A year after, when he played Australia for a record fourth time in a series, he received the same honour of leadership. ,

A year later after the Australia series, Riaz, as indeed the entire squad, experienced a low. “We failed to qualify for the semifinals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics after drawing with Poland who scored the equalizer 90 seconds from the end. A win would have taken us through. We were shattered. We had done our best but fate decided otherwise,” he explains painfully.

Then there were moments that called for determination and resilience of the highest order. “I badly injured my foot playing the Federation Cup in Hyderabad. It was after leading my State to the finals of the National Championship. It was in a cast for a month and a half. People said my career was over. But I didn’t give up. I not only recovered but returned to the pitch and made the team for the 1998 Utrecht World Cup. I think I was mentally strong and needed to be.”

And there was one bizarre happening. Riaz was made to sit out a yellow card for 38 minutes! “This happened in the 1996 Chennai Champions Trophy opener against The Netherlands. “It was a case of mistaken identity. I spoke to the concerned umpire after the match, informing him that he had made a mistake and he apologized,” Riaz reveals.

In a career that took in two Olympics, and as many World Cups and Asian Games, Riaz retired from international hockey after the 2000 Olympics.

When he was chosen for the Arjuna award, not many would have imagined that it will be one for the State in next three decades.

“I intended giving younger players opportunity,” he explains. “But I still play for Air India in the Chennai first division league.” At one shy of 50, that’s amazing!

“After retiring from international hockey, I had a stint in coaching the U-21 team as well as the India side at the SAF Games in Colombo. I now coach youngsters at an academy in Kovilpatti where around 200 children attend to learn basic skills. I also run a free summer coaching camp, attended by many orphans with kit and milk provided,” Riaz reveals his connection with the game despite his busy schedule as Deputy Manager, South, Air India.

And aviation brings him a terrifying moment in his hockey tour of duty. “It was on a flight from The Netherlands to Germany in 1995. It was a 35-seater aircraft which suddenly experienced awful turbulence amid bad weather. We were all terrified, most started praying. Team doctor Cruz began reading the bible…

“We landed safely but the players were shaken. Some vomited. The captain of the flight, however, reminded us that we were players and ought to be strong.”

Figuratively speaking, Riaz doesn’t experience any turbulence in his job with the national carrier Air India where he enjoys the unstinting support of Meenakshi Mallick, Director (Commercial), when it comes to hockey activity. “Being in touch with the game enables me share all my God-given skills and experience with up and coming players. It helps me give back to the game,” he says. “If my efforts help produce a state or international player, I would be very happy.”

Riaz is married to Mehnaz, a former state hockey player herself. And the couples’ sporting genes have been passed on to daughter Shameena (15) who has shown great promise on the squash court and son Rehan (9) who is a budding footballer.

He retains touch with his school where he picked up the game and successfully ensured, through his connections, that kids of today have drinking water and do not have to ease parched throats from a bore well as he did.

His unquenchable enthusiasm for the game and the promotion of its young practitioners, however, continues unabated and that can only be good news for the sport.

However, Riaz’s wish is to see his country and the State reclaim their winning habit.

Photos: K. Arumugam collection

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