Terrific ‘Bombay’ trio loses its MK Kaushik

MK Kaushik

India's hockey fraternity was shocked by the passing of former player and coach MK Kaushik, 66, due to COVID-19 complications at a New Delhi hospital on Saturday.
Kaushik was a key member of India's 1980 Moscow Olympics gold-medal winning team and thereafter famously coached the Indian men's team to the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games gold and the women's team to the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Kaushik played in the right outer position and his partners in prime at the 1980 Moscow Games were Mumbai boys, Merwyn Fernandis, who played as right inner and MM Somaya, the team's right half. Both fondly remembered him as their senior and mentor. "Kaushik, Somaya and myself shared the room in Moscow. We had also played together for Bombay [as it was known then] at the hockey Nationals before that, so we were very close. He was our senior; we looked up to him. He was very protective of us," remarked Fernandis.

Somaya recalled a special "Bombay move" that the trio executed which almost always foxed the opposition. "Kaushik would run down the line on the right and then suddenly cut in, taking the opposition defender [left half] with him, leaving the flank open. Merwyn would then enter this space by overlap and I would put the ball to him, leaving the opposition defender stranded in no man's land. It was a move we had practised over the years as Bombay teammates and repeated successfully in Team India," said Somaya.

An emotional Dhanraj Pillay, India's 1998 Bangkok Asian Games-winning captain, said that had it not been for Kaushik, India would never have won that historic gold medal.

"In the build-up to the Asian Games, there was some talk that a few of us senior players like Baljit Dhillon, Mukesh Kumar, Sabu Varkey, Asish Ballal and myself were over the hill. But Kaushik insisted we be picked. He placed complete faith in us and we in turn, decided to give it our all because we realised that we may not play for India after this. After our final win over South Korea via the tie-breaker, Kaushik sir and I hugged and cried together as emotions took over. Today, I'm in tears again but Kaushik sir is not there to put his arm around me," Pillay signed off.