Indian Hockey @100: Prince of hockey: Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf

Indian hockey is celebrating its 100th Year. This site is on its 25th anniversary. We will publish  many special articles befitting the twin occasions. The story on Olympian Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf is first one in the series. — Editor

By Muhammad Afsar Khan

He was a prince who had an unbridled passion for hockey. Olympian Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf (1896-1978) career transcends three of the present countries. He was born in Peshawar (British India) and passed away in Lahore (Pakistan) where he was laid to rest in the city’s Kabutarwala Graveyard.

Author: Muhammad Afsar Khan

He remained a dual national of Afghanistan and undivided India. He was known by a host of names. In Government College, Lahore, where he started playing hockey, he was known as Syed Muhammad Yusuf. He participated in the 1928 Summer Olympics as S M Yusuf. The website Olympedia has also referred to him as Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf Khan. In some hockey books and old newspapers, one reads his name as Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf Jan. The epitaph of his grave reads his name as ‘Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf Khan Afghan Sadozai.

After Government College, Lahore, he studied at Fitzwilliam House (now Fitzwilliam College), Cambridge. He was included in the Indian hockey team for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, without trials held at Calcutta (now Kolkata) and joined his teammates in London. In the Olympic tournament in Amsterdam, he played as right-winger in one match and left-half in three matches including the final in which India beat The Netherlands 3-0 to win the first of six successive gold medals and eight in all.

Before the 2nd Inter-Provincial Hockey Championship held in Lahore in 1930, Yusuf appeared in the Punjab trials but was not selected.  In February 1931, he was again ignored and not included in a team consisting of India’s Olympic players that played matches in Delhi and Lahore. This happened despite then the non-availability of a few Olympic players. To fill their vacancies, a few non-Olympians were selected for the Olympic team and it included Gupta, Mascarehenhas, Sarfraz, Dickey Carr, Hind, Pritam, E Thoy and H Thoy.

Fitzwilliam House Hockey Club 1924 – 25 (L-R): Standing: R G Ruffhead, S M Yusuf, W W Williams, C H Watson, E E Douglas Smith, B A Charles Chairs: H S Darby, L F Gibbon (Hon Sec), G F Kingston (Capt), B R Shaw, J Downing  Ground: H V Cuerden, G W Bowker, H T England (Photographer: Mason & Co, Cambridge) Photo: by kind permission of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

Out of these borrowed players, Dickey Carr and Hind later turned out to be Olympians in 1932.The player within Yusuf had not died yet. The same year, he went to Afghanistan and raised a hockey team there. Before that hockey in Afghanistan was only played by Britons living there.

He received full support of King Nadir Shah in his hockey ambitions. However, due to financial constraints, the Afghanistan hockey team failed to participate in the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The first Indian hockey team to visit Afghanistan was that of Edwards College, Peshawar (now in Pakistan), which played a match against Herbia Kabul XI in Kabul during Jashn-e-Kabul in August 1933.

Meanwhile, in 1934, the 1st and only edition of the Western Asiatic Games in Delhi approached and Afghanistan decided to participate in athletics and hockey. There were only two hockey teams in the Western Asiatic Games. India, captained by Dhyan Chand, defeated Afghanistan, led by Yusuf, 5-0 in the only match of the tournament.  Thus, Yusuf became first international hockey player having played for two countries i.e. British India and Afghanistan. His son Shahzada Muhammad Asif, a right-half, too was in the team, becoming the first father-son duo to play in an international hockey match.

Fitzwilliam House Hockey Team 1926 – 27 (L-R): Standing: O R Cour-Palais, A Jeannacopoulo, J R Penistan, T S Lucking, Chairs: A K Mitra, R R Hancock (Hon Sec), S M Yusuf (Capt), B A Charles, S P L Beaumont Ground: S J Canilla, A N Worman, L R Doughty (Photographer: Mason & Co, Cambridge)  Photo: by kind permission of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

Yusuf and his son Asif are on the top of the list of father and son duos being Olympians in hockey. Yusuf played in the 1928 Summer Olympics from British India and Asif in the 1936 Summer Olympics from Afghanistan. Afghanistan secured sixth position in Berlin.

Yusuf was captain of the Afghanistan hockey team in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. However, having already represented India in the 1928 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board did not allow him to play for Afghanistan. This was because he could not fulfill tough conditions to play for a second country in the Olympics.

Afghanistan hockey team for 1936 Olympics. Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf is fifth from the right in front row.  Photo courtesy of Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf family.

In 1947, Yusuf visited India and Ceylon in the capacity of manager of Afghan hockey team and president of Afghanistan Hockey Federation. Captain of the Afghanistan hockey team in this tour was his son Asif. No international match was played in India but one such match was staged against Ceylon in Colombo which Afghanistan won 3-0. Yusuf also served as secretary-general and president of Afghanistan Olympic Association.

He was manager of the Afghanistan hockey team at the 1948 Summer Olympics held at London. Afghanistan was ranked eighth here. Afghanistan hockey team’s last participation in the Olympic Games was in 1956, where they got 11th position. Yusuf visited India as advisor and manager of the Pakistani Punjab hockey teams in June and November 1950, respectively. Later, he was a member of the Pakistan Hockey Federation inquiry committee which had been set up to investigate causes of Pakistan’s failure to win a medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics.

Besides him and his son Asif, many other Afghan princes represented Afghanistan in Olympic hockey.

They include: Shahzada Sultan Muhammad (1936), Shahzada Saadat-ul-Malook (1936), Shahzada Shuja-ud-Din (1936), Major Muhammad Azam (non-starter in 1936) and Sardar Salahuddin Jazi (1956). The manager of the Afghan hockey team in the 1956 Summer Olympics, Sardar Muhammad Faruk Saraj, was also a Shahzada. Names Shahzada Muhammad Yusuf’s relatives who represented Pakistan in Olympic hockey include: Shahzada Muhammad Khurram (1948), Shahzada Muhammad Shahrukh (1948, also took part in 1956 Summer Olympics in cycling), Mahmud-ul-Hassan (1948, 1952), Zafar Ali Zafri (non-starter in 1956 and1960), Ayaz Mahmood (1984) and Amir Zafar (1988).

The writer is currently based in Islamabad. He contributed to ‘Sportimes’, Pakistan’s first sports magazine and is former news editor, ‘Pakistan Observer.’ Nowadays, he focuses on the history of hockey in British India.