Late Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, once proudly proclaimed: “I always thought only soldiers fight for the pride of the country but here I have a soldier with a hockey-stick in his hand.” She was in fact referring to a player who chose to play the World-Cup even when his father expired at the beginning of the tournament.

The prolific right-winger was none other than Tahir Zaman, who teamed up with Shahbaz Ahmed Sr. and Kallemullah Khan, to get his country what it deserved three decades ago.

Among other things, the great right-in of his times, scored a stroke in the final of the 1994 World Cup tie-breaker, leading to ultimate glory in Sydney.

Unfortunately, his father wasn’t around to witness that moment.

Even in his playing days, the wily-winger Tahir dreamt of being a coach, later on in life.
Tahir Zaman frequently attends coaching courses conducted by FIH. His coaching experience ranges from Egypt to Azerbaijan to Barbados. Back in early 2000s, the celebrated forward Tahir, coached medal winning Pakistan team as well.

Early on in January this year, he took up the role of coaching Oman team. Notwithstanding the numerous limitations – a modest pool of players, challenges with fitness and non-relieving of players from their respective departments — Zaman has still shown good results for Oman Hockey. Their team won the Asian Games Qualifier and got the ticket to recently finished Asian Games at Jakarta, Indonesia.

In the 3-nation tournament earlier this year, Oman ended playing a 4-4 draw against Pakistan.
Oman is the only Gulf country which has made its mark in Hockey. Rightly, they stood 7th in the Asian Games maintaining their ranking in Asian Hockey. Playing against Bangladesh – ranked two-spots above them – Oman were superior in all departments but ended up losing the match.

At the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy 2018, at Muscat, he hopes to get good exposure for his players. Oman is the lowest ranked team (33rd) in the competition, behind only to 15th-ranked Korea. Tahir is realistic about his aspirations from the Oman team. He wants them to be competitive against every team because three teams in this tournament are World-Cup bound, scheduled in Bhubaneshwar, in Nov-Dec ’18.

Oman Government and the Federation has been supportive and Tahir substantiates that there are only two tournaments in Oman named after Sultan Qaboos, one is Football and another one being Hockey.

On the degradation of Hockey in Pakistan, Tahir feels that Hockey India League has done a lot of good to India. He regrets that Pakistan and India don’t get to play each other often these days and feels bad about Hockey-fans that they don’t get what they deserve.
Tahir Zaman runs a Hockey Academy in Gojra, Pakistan. He has firm belief in grooming young talent and that’s what motivates him to continue his work at the grass-roots level.
There are plans to have Pakistan Super League and Tahir strongly feels that India should be invited for the same.

Remembering his playing days, Tahir fondly remembers playmaker of his times: Shahbaz Ahmed Sr., Kaleemullah and relishes the game of Pargat Singh and Dhanraj Pillay.
Tahir’s father once told him, ‘You keep winning insignificant tournaments. Show me something big!’ He then went on to win the World Cup ’94 for Pakistan.

But those were the playing days.
Will Tahir Zaman be able to pull-off something big yet again in his Coaching-career?