Mohammed Shahid was the 'Lionel Messi' of hockey: Vasudevan Bhaskaran

To say that Mohammed Shahid was a mercurial hockey player in his heyday would be an understatement. He was a lot more than that. In fact, his 1980 Moscow Olympics gold-winning captain Vasudevan Bhaskaran called him the, "Lionel Messi of hockey."

Also Read: Hockey legend Mohammed Shahid passes away

India hockey forward Mohammed Shahid during the 1980s. Pic/mid-day archive

Indian hockey was left poorer yesterday with the passing away of Shahid (56), who breathed his last at a private hospital in Gurgaon, following a prolonged liver and kidney ailment.

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"There can only be happy memories of Shahid," said his former captain Bhaskaran. "And that's because he was a very happy man, both on and off the hockey field. On the field, he hated too many instructions, and obviously didn't need them either. He would always say, 'bhaisahab, mujhe kisiko pakadne mat bolo.

Mujhe sirf ball dena aur phir un logon ko mujhe pakadne do' (please don't tell me to mark/catch any player. Just pass the ball to me and let them catch me).

Vasudevan Bhaskaran, MM Somaya and Merwyn Fernandis

Off the field, he loved to sing, and would render Kishore Kumar songs and ghazals for us after dinner during the Moscow Games. He would always fool around and play pranks with teammates. Basically, he was the middle finger of our team," Bhaskaran told mid-day yesterday.

Two other players, who knew Shahid well are Merwyn Fernandis and MM Somaya - the trio were the only common factors in the Indian hockey team across three Olympics (Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988), and were roommates or as Somaya put it, 'dormitory mates' on all three occasions.

"In those days, we didn't have rooms, and were put up in one large dormitory. Shahid, Merwyn and myself became thick friends. My first and lasting memory of Shahid though is in 1978, when he played for Sports Hostel Lucknow in the Aga Khan tournament at Bombay Gymkhana. He was a teenager then, while I played for Mahindra.

Before the tournament no one knew anything about Shahid, but after it, the world wanted to know everything about him. He had single-handedly taken his team into the final, where they lost to an Indian Airlines team that comprised all India players," recalled Somaya.

For Fernandis, Shahid was the inimitable genius. "He was a brilliant dribbler and changed direction in one quick move, often leaving defenders rooted to the ground. At practice, he had this one trick, where he would tap the ball in the air and swiftly swerve his stick around the ball without letting it fall to the ground. I thought that's easy and tried copying him, but the ball always hit the edge of my stick and fell. That was his brilliance.

He made difficult things look easy in hockey. Another striking feature about Shahid was that he did everything fast. He spoke fast, ate fast and even walked fast. You had to be quick to keep pace with him as he would never slow down. He was so agile," said Fernandis.

The last days
Agility is one of the traits Shahid lost during his last 20 days in hospital, and Somaya, who visited him in the ICU, was shocked at what he saw. Somaya explained: "He had become so weak. I lightened up his mood by discussing hockey. He was very happy that the Indian team had won a silver medal at the FIH Champions Trophy in Australia recently (incidentally, Shahid was adjudged best forward at the 1980 Champions Trophy in Karachi).

We also reminisced about our old days with the national team and he laughed a bit. While leaving, I gave him a hug and kiss on his cheek on behalf of our hockey team of the 1980s."

Little did he know it would be goodbye forever.