| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 12 June 1956 Hargawan, Bihar Sharif, Bihar, India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Halfback | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1977–19?? | India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Zafar Iqbal (born 12 June 1956) is a former Indian field hockey player and captain of the India national team. [1]
Zafar Iqbal was born on 12 June 1956 to Mohammed Shahabuddin Ahmed, a professor in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and Najmun Nisha, as the third of their five children. He was born in Hargawan, a village in Bihar Sharif, in the Indian State of Bihar. His family moved to Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh where he was brought up. [2] Iqbal started out playing football as child, before taking to hockey in 1969–70 encouraged by his father's colleague and hockey enthusiast, Professor Khan. He was mentored by Swami Jagan Nath, hockey coach of the AMU during that time and manager of India national team during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Alongside hockey, Iqbal pursued a degree in civil engineering from AMU graduating in 1978 securing 74 per cent marks. [3]
Iqbal was selected for the combined university trials after being selected on back of good performances during the inter-university games; Zafar playing for AMU. Iqbal good performances against the India national team which included scoring a goal against Leslie Fernandez prompted his selection to the national team for its tour of Netherlands in 1977. [3] [4] Iqbal till that point had always played in the left-in position, but was asked by coach Kishan Lal to play left-out because Surinder Singh Sodhi played in the former. [3]
Iqbal played at the Asian Games in 1978 at Bangkok and was the captain of the team at New Delhi in 1982, winning the silver medal in both. The crowning glory of his illustrious career in hockey came to him in 1980 when he represented India at the Moscow Olympics and brought home the gold medal after a long hiatus. Further, he had the honour of carrying the Indian Tricolour of the Indian squad at the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics 1984. He also won the bronze medal for the country at the Champion's Trophy 1982 in Holland and won many other tournaments against Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, West Germany and other European nations.
His extraordinary game as “Left Out” in the Indian blue jersey with the number 11 embossed at the back is a glorious part of the history of Indian Hockey. After hanging his hockey sticks he immersed himself in coaching as the Chief National Coach, head Coach and National Selector for the Indian hockey squad. The team coached by him won the silver medal at the Asian Games in Hiroshima in 1994.
Mr. Zafar Iqbal is a strong proponent of hard work, team spirit, camaraderie and symbiotic partnership amongst team members. He stresses upon the adoption of modern innovations like sports physiology and psychology in Indian sports administration. He also believes that universities are the nurseries for talent, honing them to represent the country and he has contributed time and again to AMU, making it a nurturing ground for budding talent. Widely and rightly acknowledged by the print and electronic media as the ‘Gentleman of Hockey.
The country conferred Mr. Zafar Iqbal with the highest honour for a sportsman, the “Arjuna Award” in 1983. In 2012, the President of India honoured him with the “Padma Shri” for his invaluable services and the U. P. Government gave him the highest citizen award of the state, “Yash Bharti” in 1994. He was felicitated at the ‘Golden Greats’ platform by ‘Hockey India’ along with 34 other Olympic Gold Medalists in 2012. In recognition of his indispensable services to the nation, Aligarh Nagar Nigam has befittingly named a road after him and in 2013, in honour of his commitment to the revival of hockey at AMU, the university presented him with the D.Litt. Honoris Causa at its 60th Annual Convocation.
Mohammed Shahid was an Indian field hockey player. He is considered one of India's best to have played the game and was known for his dribbling skills. He was a member of the Indian team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. He was awarded Arjuna Award in 1980–1981 and Padma Shri in 1986.
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Dilip Tirkey, is a former Indian field hockey player, politician and sports administrator. His former playing position was of full back. He was best known for his penalty corner hit. Dilip was one of the most difficult defenders to beat in the world and was known as "The Wall of Indian Hockey" He was an ex-captain of Indian hockey team. The first and only Hockey player from India to play more than 400 international matches Dilip Tirkey was the Former Captain of the Indian Hockey Team. Having played 412 international matches for India, Dilip Tirkey has represented India in 3 Olympic Games & was Captain of the Indian Hockey Team at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens. Under his captaincy, India clinched gold medal at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan in the Final. The First-ever Tribal to receive Padma Shri Award, Dilip Tirkey is a former Member of Parliament of India in Rajya Sabha, former Chairman of Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC), Chairman of Odisha Hockey Promotion Council & Hockey Odisha's ad-hoc committee. In September 2022, he became President of Hockey India. On 22 March 2012, he was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as one of the three Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidates to the Upper House of Indian Parliament. Previously, Dilip Tirkey was working as chairman of Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC), now he is working as the chairman of Odisha Hockey Promotion Council. In September 2022, he was elected unopposed to the position of the president of Hockey India. He is the first ever international hockey player to become President of Hockey India Dilip Tirkey Sports Research Development Foundation short and abbreviated as DTSRD is an initiative of Padma Shri Dilip Tirkey. DTSRD has its registered office in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Dibakar Parichha serves as the Secretary-General of DTSRD while Prime Abhilas is the managing director of DTSRD. The Founder – President of DTSRD is Dilip Tirkey
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Syedna Tahir Saifuddin School, better known by its initials STS School, and by its former name Minto Circle, is a K–12 semi-residential high school under Aligarh Muslim University at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School in 1875, it later evolved as Aligarh Muslim University and is one of the five senior secondary schools run by the university.
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