Sohail Abbas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sohail Abbas | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sohail Abbas | |
| Date of birth | 10 April 1977 | |
| Place of birth | Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan | |
| Nickname | "Sohail" | |
| Position | Left Full Back | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | WAPDA | |
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (goals) |
| 1998–present | Habib Bank / WAPDA / Rotterdam Hockey Clbu (Holland) | - (-) |
| National team** | ||
| 1998–present | Pakistan | 258 (280) |
|
* Professional club appearances and goals |
||
Sohail Abbas (born June 9, 1977 in Karachi) is a field hockey defender from Pakistan, and one of the most prolific hockey player from Pakistan. He is specialized in penalty corners. He is yet another student of hockey fanatic Habib Public School, Karachi. The other famous Hockey players from the renowned school inculde Hasan Sardar, Shahid Ali Khan and his uncle Safdar Abbas to name the few.
Abbas holds the world record for most goals scored by an individual. The defender scored 274 international goals surpassing the 22-year-old record of legendary Dutch penalty corner specialist Paul Litjens. He retired in Decemeber 2004, just after the Champions Trophy in Lahore along with another Pakistani great Waseem Ahmad http://www.phf.com.pk/interviews/wasim_ahmad.php, when he was only 27 years of age but on July 04, 2006, he has decided to return to the international hockey. Since the summer of 2005 he and Waseem both are playing for Dutch club Rotterdam. he struck his 33rd goal to break Mark Hager's 9-year old record. His 33rd goal emerged from penalty-mark when he converted 66th minute penalty- stroke against India in Pakistan's precious 2-1 win on fourth day of 26th Champions Trophy last Wednesday. The deadly Australian striker registered 32 goals from 1985 to 1995. He took 11 editions for his 32 goals while Sohail did the needful in his 6th CT and added another on 12 December tie to make his final CT total 34 .
Sohail is already holder of World Record for most goals by an individual in international field hockey. He broke 22-year-old record of legendary Dutch PC specialist Paul Litjens when he struck his 268th goal at Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University Hockey Stadium on Friday, 8 October.
Sohail was also leading scorer of 28th Olympic Games Hockey Tournament at Athens with 11 goals and 9th Indo Pak series with seven goals. Mixing his scorching drives with rasping drag-flicks, Abbas has proved to be the bane of rival defenders.
Sohail equaled the world record on 4 October during fifth test of current series at the stadium named after Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand ; part of three gold medal-winning Indian teams in the Olympics - Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932 and Berlin 1936, where he was the captain. The nation honored the memory of Dhyan by renaming a landmark in the Capital city New Delhi, the National Stadium, after him on 8 March 2002. Sohail scored his 267th international goal on this historic venue from the 65th minute penalty-stroke.
Sohail is among the seven Pakistanis who completed 200- plus caps in international hockey circuit. Others are Shahbaz Ahmed, Tahir Zaman, Mansoor Ahmed, Muhammad Usman, Wasim Ahmed and Muhammad Nadeem. He played his 200th international hockey match on 1 July 2004 when Pakistan clashed with Netherlands in 4-Nation Rabobank Trophy 2004 at Amstelveen's Wagener Stadium.
Sohail , who managed 16 goals in 15 matches of European tour prior to Olympics, was the key figure when Pakistan win a berth in Athens Olympic Hockey Tournament by finishing third at Madrid's Olympic Qualifier on 13 March 2004. Three times Olympic Champion Pakistan also qualified for Sydney Olympics four years ago by taking part in Osaka 's Olympic Qualifier in March 2000. Pakistan finished second on the Japanese soil, with Sohail scoring 13 goals to finish as leading marksman. Sohail was also leading marksman at Madrid with nine goals. Four of these nine goals were against India in league encounter when he fired all four PCs into the net. At Athens, he became Pakistan's most goal-getter in a single Olympics, beating 10-goal record of mercurial centre-forward Hassan Sardar, created at LA twenty years ago. Only Sohail, Sardar and Abdul Rashid Jr have the honor of topping goal scoring-chart in Olympics hockey. Rashid did it in 1968 when he was joint leader with Brian Glencross (Australia) and Prithipal Singh (India).
Sohail was already the holder of three world records in his six-year international career, before Amritsar's landmark. He is the scorer of the highest number of goals (60) in a calendar year as well as the maker of the fastest century and double century of goals in international hockey. He reached double century of goals on 17 August 2003 at Wagener stadium when he struck twice in 6-5 thrilling win over Argentina during 25th CT.
It was fifth CT for Sohail and in the process he becomes the all-time leading scorer of Pakistan in this prestigious annual event. He toppled Hanif Khan 's 21- goal record by converting the PC against Argentina in the 7th minute. It was his 22nd goal of CT history.
Sohail can easily be regarded as the true star of the 21st century. Following the retirement of the Floris-Jan Bovelander, Sohail is arguably the best short corner expert in business. Argentina's Jorge Lombi and Netherlands's Taeke Taekema are second in line.
Born at Karachi's well-known Holy Family hospital, Soldier Bazaar on 9 June 1977, he is a natural short corner expert with a very strong wrist, a powerful drag flick and a complete disguising body dodge action. Sohail is bound to be singular super star of his era. He was Pakistani candidate for the FIH Player of the Year award in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004 but failed to outpoint Jay Stacy (Australia), Stephan Veen (Netherlands), Florian Kunz (Germany) and Teun de Nooijer (Netherlands) and Jamie Dwyer ( Australia) respectively.
Sohail is a former pupil of Karachi's famous Habib Public School which has a long and glorious tradition of churning out hockey talent. In fact, it has been rightly remarked that hockey is taught as a subject in this school.
Educated at Nazimabad No.1 (Liaquatabad Town), he comes from a sporting pedigree with his father Syed Iftikhar Hussain a former first-class cricketer. He represented Karachi as well as famous Pak Crescent Club which is known for producing Zaheer Abbas. Sohail is elder of the three brothers and his other two brothers, Raheel and Zeeshan, are not interested in playing hockey. But his uncle Safdar Abbas was a brilliant left-winger who scored a goal against Argentina during World Cup 1973 as 16-year-old boy. Sohail is keen to emphasize the part played by Safdar, a gold medallist in CT 1980 as spearhead, who, Sohail says, inspired him as a youngster.
Safdar (1973-81) managed 22 goals in 56 outings but still won a gold in major event while Sohail failed to match him despite nine attempts. He failed to find the top portion of podium during nine major events.
The rise of well-built, soft-spoken Sohail to stardom did not happen overnight. The irony and pity with him was that in the beginning, his talent and abilities were not recognized and taken seriously. He had agonizing experience from 1995 to 1998. Like many stalwarts of Pakistan hockey, he is also a product of Junior scene. The fine performance in 18th Junior National Hockey U18 Championship at Quetta 1995 allowed him a place in Pakistan Junior squad which drew home series 2-2 against German Juniors. But he was not considered for the tour of Netherlands, Germany and Poland besides 3rd Junior Asia Cup at Singapore in 1996. He staged comeback in Pakistan Junior in 1997 which won all four test matches against touring German Junior by handsome margin.
Four months later, he was out of Pakistan Junior squad. Pakistan junior team manager Samiullah Khan, now manager of national team, and coach Ayaz Mahmood were not convinced to include him for the Milton Keynes - bound squad that resulting in Pakistan not making it to the Junior World Cup semis for the first time in the Cup's 25-year history. Finally, he made his debut in the following year in the national team and since then he did not look back and achieved a number of milestones one after another.
When he made his international debut during the 7th Pak-India series 1998, his role was only to come from the bench for penalty corner drills. His debut was at Peshawar's Lala S.M. Ayub Hockey Stadium on Saturday, 28 February 1998. Pakistan manager Islahuddin Siddiqui effected a substitution midway through the gruelling tie, but the newcomer did not make an immediate impact. He failed to score in three PCs as Pakistan won 4-1. The following day, on 1 March 1998, in the second test at Rawalpindi's Army Hockey Stadium, the same boy announced his arrival on the international scene in dramatic fashion, slamming in the match-winner in Pakistan's 2-1 win. Ever since there has been no looking back. Undoubtedly, Sohail over the years has emerged as Pakistan's trump card. His expertise in PCs has tilted the scales in Pakistan's favor in crunch situations. In his absence, the Pakistan hockey team was rudderless, defenseless.
When the rule was changed after the WC 1998, he was not considered for 16th Commonwealth Games hockey event by coach Shahnaz Sheikh. But he staged a comeback to win silver in Lahore's 20th CT and bronze in Bangkok's 13th Asian Games in the same year.
Sohail, who struck 20 goals in 1998, was in terrific form in 1999 when Pakistan won the Azlan Shah Cup for the first time and got silver in Asia Cup. He was leading scorer in 8th Pakistan-India Series (10 goals), 9th Azlan Shah Cup (12 goals) and 5th Asia Cup (16 goals). Of 16 Asia Cup's goals, seven were against Sri Lanka which allowed him a spot in select band of nine players who registered double hat-trick in international circus for Pakistan. His 60 goals in 1999 shattered the world record of Litjens (58 goals) and national record of Sardar (50 goals) in one calendar year.
Sohail's extraordinary talent and goal scoring prowess means that he is a target of hockey clubs all over the world. He gets offer from clubs of numerous countries and represented Dutch club Amsterdam in 1999. In Netherlands, the hockey league, like soccer, runs for as long as six months with a winter break in between. Due to his commitments with the Pakistan team, Sohail only played for nine weeks and that too in two spells. He was provided with free lodging and boarding, offered a car and he was paid as much as 700 dollars per match.
Time spent in Netherlands him tone his skills and he pays warm tribute to the club boss Jons Hanset, who helped make his stay enjoyable. Twelve goals in 5 matches and helped his team qualify for the play-offs was no mean feat and he has no hesitation in stating that Netherlands remains his favorite country to visit. Close to his mother, he describes her as "my greatest supporter. I credit her with all I have achieved." His heroes of different sports are Shahbaz Ahmed Sr (hockey), Diego Maradona (soccer) and Andre Agasssi (tennis).
Sohail is quickest to complete the century of goals, reaching the three figures, when Pakistan thrashed Britain 8-1 in Sydney Olympics on 18 September 2000 (His 50th goal was recorded on 12 August 1999 when he got hat-trick against Spain during Rabobank Challenge at Amstelveen). Thus he completed his century in world record timing of two years, six months and 18 days. He was the sixth Pakistani to reach three figures in international arena after Hassan Sardar (150 goals), Tahir Zaman (134 goals), Kamran Ashraf (129 goals), Hanif Khan (127 goals) and Manzoorul Hassan Sr (101 goals).
He got eight goals at Sydney after handsome display at Osaka's Olympic qualifiers. His achievement at Japan was all the more remarkable considering he had only just return to the fray after spending four months on the sidelines with a groin injury. His total goals in 2000 were 26, followed by 37 in 2001.
Sohail attracted worldwide attention in 2002 when he emerged as the joint highest scorer along with Argentina's Jorge Lombi in the 10th World Cup at Kuala Lumpur. And all 10 goals that Sohail scored at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in the Malaysian capital were off PCs.
He managed 44 goals in 2002 and added yet another feather to his cap in that year. Hasan Sardar was Pakistan's top scorer with 150 goals before Abbas unveiled his goal-scoring prowess. During the Six-Nation Invitational tournament at Kuala Lumpur, a month before World Cup 2002, Sohail scored his 151st international goal, becoming Pakistan's all-time highest scorer in international hockey. He struck nine goals as Pakistan managed bronze medals in 17th Commonwealth Games hockey tournament at Belle Vue Regional Hockey Centre at Manchester. He struck hat-trick when Pakistan routed South Africa 10-2 in bronze-decider on 4 August 2002. Later, in the 24th CT in Cologne, Germany, Sohail played a major role and Pakistan finished third ahead of India.
Sohail, earlier discarded, ultimately slapped his critics on the face by exhibiting outstanding skills and high class performance to become back bone of the Pakistan team. The full-back, who joined Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) on 27 July 2004, had scored 274 goals in 224 matches.
He was back bone of his previous organization Pakistan WAPDA in domestic hockey. WAPDA is currently national champion of Pakistan and their back-to-back triumphs, thanks to Sohail, recorded during 50th and 51st National Championship at Karachi 2003 and Peshawar 2004 respectively. Sohail also helped his previous domestic team HBL to reach the final of the National Championship in 2001.
Sohail managed 28 goals in 2003 and for the sixth time running, he finished as annual leading scorer for Pakistan. He struck five goals as Pakistan met success in Ipoh's 12th Azlan Shah Cup in March 2003 but later on Pakistan went to Australia without him, Nadeem Ahmed and Wasim Ahmed as the trio had defied the PHF by skipping the national training camp to play professional league in Germany. Sohail and Wasim represented German club Harvestehuder THC of Hamburg while Nadeem played for Gladbacher HTC. It was Sohail's third spell as pro hockey player after Dutch league 1999 and Malaysian League 2002 (he represented Bank Simpanan Nasional BSN alongwith Kashif Jawwad ).
Nadeem did return in time for the trials for the Australia-bound squad, but he was not considered for selection and Pakistan suffered embarrassment, finishing last in both twin 4-Nation tournaments at Perth and Sydney.
Nadeem, later on, was reprimanded for his act while Sohail and Wasim were not allowed to appear in Pakistan-China series in July. They faced an inquiry committee on 14 July 2003 during which they regretted the mistake. Both were allowed to join the camp and seven days later were included in the team for the 25th CT. But their inclusion only came after hefty fines of Rs. 100,000 each on the players. PHF inquiry committee had also recommended a one-year ban on the duo. But PHF President Gen. Muhammad Aziz Khan brought an amicable end to the controversy when he said that the under-fire players will compete in the CT in better national interest.
Sohail won bronze in Amstelveen's CT, followed by silver in KL's 6th Asia Cup. The PHF sent under-strength team at the First Afro Asian Games hockey event at Hyderabad Deccan 2003 by resting Sohail saying he needed rest after the CT and Asia Cup.
Sohail also started the year 2004 in whirlwind fashion and won the top scorer award in 13th Azlan Shah Cup at Bukit Jalil Complex. He struck ten goals with the help of two hat tricks against India and Germany. He managed one double hat-trick and 21 hat-tricks in international hockey so far : a record unmatched in international field hockey. Sohail recorded 59 goals in 2004 and was well poised to break his own world record of most goals in calendar year (60 in 1999) before retirement.
Despite such tremendous show, Sohail failed to win gold in major event. He represented Pakistan in Olympics 2000, 2004 and World Cup 1998 and 2002, but Pakistan failed to win any medal. He was silver medallist in CT of 1998 and bronze medallist in CT 2002, 2003 and 2004. He also appeared in CT of 1999 and 2001. He is a blessing for Pakistan and his qualities and abilities should be exploited and used to inspire more players to follow Sohail Abbas's footsteps.
