Page 26 - Pakistan Link - June 25, 2021

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P26 – PAKISTAN LINK – JUNE 25, 2021
n By Ijaz Chaudhry
decade has passed since
the demise of Munir Dar,
A a member of Pakistan’s
first-ever Olympic gold medal-
winning hockey team, of 1960.
Widely acknowledged as the fin-
est right full-back to represent
Pakistan, Munir left for his heav-
enly abode on June 1, 2011.
I was in Holland with the Dar
Hockey Academy the day he died.
As the name suggests, the academy
was a brainchild of Munir Dar. The
Dar Hockey Academy was about to
play the opening match of its 2011
European tour when the sad news
came. The academy officials want-
ed to cancel the match but Munir’s
son — Taqueer, who was also Dar
Hockey Academy’s president —
advised from Pakistan to fulfill the
commitment. Observing a minute’s
silence in the memory of the de-
parted legend before the match, the
academy team then went on to play
the game wearing black armbands.
Munir Dar lived a remark-
able, rather enviable life. Born in
1936 in Amritsar, the young Munir
moved to Lahore in 1947. In his
new home, he discovered the hock-
ey stick, which started his life-long
love affair. a right full-back, was a member
Blessed with a strong, athletic of the 1968 Olympic gold medal- team which, in 1984, won the coun- the youngest son Tafseer, who had
physique, Munir displayed all the winning team. He also reigned su- try’s third and, to-date, last Olym- also been showing great promise,
attributes of a solid defender at the
right full-back position. Moreover,
he was a wonderful striker of pen-
alty corners. All this meant he was
soon on the radar of the national
selectors. The 19-year-old Munir
earned a spot in the 1956 Mel-
bourne Olympics.
At Melbourne, Pakistan won
their first Olympic medal in any
discipline — silver. Young Munir’s
display in the final was memorable,
and there was no looking back for
him after that.
Munir created a sensation at
the 1958 Asian Games held in To-
kyo, Japan. He was instrumental
in Pakistan’s 8-0 victory against
South Korea, who had just made
headlines by restricting India, the
undisputed king of hockey at that
time, to a 2-1 victory against them.
Despite being the stronger side,
India could only beat Korea by a
single goal. In Pakistan’s match, he
successfully converted as many as
five successive penalty corners — a
feat never achieved in international
hockey before and only equaled
since then.
In the tournament, Munir
scored eight goals on penalty cor- preme at the inaugural World Cup
ners, but his five against Korea in 1971, where he was the tourna- His second son Taseer was
made all the difference. The hockey
tournament of the 1958 Asiad was for the victorious Pakistan side. was only dirty politics that Taseer
played on a single league basis. The
Pakistan-India match ended score- The Dar success story contin- cause experts rated his penalty cor- Munir also coached Pakistan’s
less and the two sides finished with
equal points. But Pakistan won the
gold on goal difference, largely due
to their big win against the Kore-
ans.
Two years later, Munir again
figured in Pakistan’s winning gold
in the Rome Olympics, ending
India’s 32-year hegemony. He re-
mained Pakistan’s first choice until
his retirement after the 1966 Asian
Games, when he had the honor of
captaining the national side.
In three Olympic appearances,
he garnered one gold and two sil-
vers. In as many appearances in the
Asian Games, Munir’s medal cabi-
net had two golds and one silver.
Before his exit from the inter-
national scene, Munir had already
groomed his younger brother, Tan-
Hockey: A Decade without Dar
vir Dar, as his successor. Tanvir, also
when he figured in the Pakistan
pic gold medal.
ment’s top scorer, with eight goals
couldn’t don the green shirt, be- some time.
ued and Munir’s eldest son Taqueer
www.PakistanLink.com
completed the unique family treble
this had a disheartening impact on
to the extent that he decided to say
goodbye to hockey and turned his
a stand-by for those Olympics. It
played first-class cricket for quite
ner strike more powerful and accu- senior and junior national sides in
S
OR
T
COMMENTARY
the 1970s and ’80s.
But hockey was only one part
of Munir Dar’s multi-faceted per-
sonality. He had an eye for horses
and owned several race horses. His
stable won many races at the La-
hore Race Club.
Dar Sahib was also the found-
ing president of the Pakistan Karate
Federation and also served in the
executive committee of the Paki-
stan Rugby Federation. A police
officer by profession, he was the
chairman of the Police Sports Board
from 1985 to 1995. His tenure is re-
membered as the golden decade of
police sports. The policemen won
laurels not only at the national level
but also made Pakistan proud at
the Asian and world level.
At the 1990 Asian games,
400-meter hurdler and policeman
Ghulam Abbas won the athletics
gold for Pakistan after 16 years —
no Pakistani has won since. Body-
builders Yahya Butt and Mansoor
Butt, also from the police service,
won the Mr Asia title. The Pakistan
volleyball team too had a great run
from the late 1980s to the mid-’90s,
remaining a potent force at the
Asian level. Many policemen regu-
larly won selection in the national
rate than any of the other Dars. All volleyball line-ups during that pe-
riod. Dar was also instrumental
in raising the Asian-style kabaddi
team of the Police. Again, quite a
few members of the police squad
represented Pakistan’s national
squads, which won medals at the
Asiads.
Blessed with an excellent
memory, Dar was also a reservoir
of stories from the sports world.
Sports-lovers like me would spend
hours in his company and never felt
bored as he came out with interest-
ing and informative tales from so
many sports disciplines.
Coming back to his discipline
of hockey, under Munir Dar’s di-
rect supervision, the Police team
won the national championships in
1993 for only the second time; the
first was way back in 1960, when
Munir himself was a member of
the team.
The year 1994 saw Pakistan
hockey’s last hurrah on the global
stage. The Green Shirts won the
World Cup after 12 years and the
Champions Trophy after 14 years.
The Police team provided five play-
ers in the national outfits for the
two tournaments, which was more
than any other department’s contri-
bution.
Munir Dar was an institution
in himself. Bold and vocal, he never
hesitated in calling a spade a spade
attention to cricket. Tafseer Dar and was much feared by the incom-
petent and failed sports adminis-
trators of the country, who often
had to face his wrath.
Hockey remained his first love
throughout. He was greatly de-
pressed to witness the continuous
decline of Pakistan hockey. On Mu-
nir’s suggestion, his son Taqueer
established the Dar Hockey Acad-
emy, in late 2006, to nurture young
talent. Within a few years, the acad-
emy became the greatest reservoir
of hockey talent in the country,
with its boys regularly featuring in
all the Pakistani national sides, in
the senior as well as junior teams.
The 19-year-old Munir Dar
had debuted for Pakistan in 1956.
Sixty-five years on, his legacy con-
tinues in the shape of Pakistan’s
finest hockey nursery. Whenever a
Dar Academy boy dons the coveted
green shirt, Munir must be smiling
down at him from up there. - Dawn