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When Dhyan Chand was man-marked
When Masood and Dhyan Chand toured New Zealand in 1935, the captaincy issue once again surfaced in Indian hockey.
Mirza Nasiruddin Masood has been an ambassador, a UNESCO mission chief, private secretary to Maulana Azad, an associate of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. But a hitherto unknown facet of Masood's life, his sporting career, more controversial than colourful, has come to light with this writer able to locate his two sons residing in the United States.
A dashing midfielder, Masood and Dhyan Chand toured New Zealand in 1935. With that one of the bitter rivalries of Indian hockey, the captaincy issue, once again surfaced.
Dhyan, never a captain till then even for his army team, was asked to lead on the tour which Masood, Manavadar's captain since its inception in 1930, strongly resented.
Masood's pride was also hurt as he was one of the five selectors, being the representative from Manavadar State! According to an article on Masood's elder son Enver's website, "an understanding was reached that Masood would captain the team next year at the Olympics in Berlin".
Elitism had been the sole criteria for choosing the captain in colonial India. The deserving Eric Penninger, a driver in the Railways, was overlooked with greenhorn Jaipal Singh, an Oxford University Blue captaining the nation in the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
Again the 'Other Rank' soldier Dhyan Chand got the stick as the aristocratic Lal Shah Bokhari, a first timer, grabbed the honour for the 1932 Olympics.
That Jaipal and Bokhari never played another Olympics but Dhyan made it a hat-trick is another matter. "I was bypassed in 1932, possibly because of my academic handicaps and so-called social position in life", Dhyan Chand observed in 'Goal', his autobiography. Masood was harping on 'tradition' to become the leader.
The rivalry was temporarily forgotten as the New Zealand tour turned out to be a grand success. The New Zealand Sporting Life publications described India's display thus: "The Indians call it hockey. We call it magic".
But the 'understanding' was forgotten when Dhyan Chand was declared the captain for the 1936 Berlin Games. Masood said in 'The World's Hockey Champions, 1936' -- which he authored and published in 1937 -- 'The appointment of captain was done contrary to rules and without any precedent. The IHF president selected one of us without seeing either of us on or off a hockey field".
Things got worse three weeks before the Olympics when India lost 4-1 to Germany in a practice match and Masood was singled out for the defeat. The only journalist present reported, "..Masood not playing in his usual form, it will be anybody's game if they met the Germans in the final".
Masood, a loner by now, felt slighted. He argued that jetlag was the culprit and the team would soon settle down. He was proved correct when India won all their other eight practice matches quite convincingly.
Ali Iqditar Dara -- he played for Pakistan in the 1948 Olympics -- was flown out of India to augment the team at the hefty cost of Rs.3,000. Dara came late and played only in the semis and in final. Masood got to play just one match at Berlin, somewhat intriguingly, only after Dara reached there.
Dara was originally selected for the Berlin Games but, it was long believed, the Army did not grant him leave. However, Ashwini Kumar, his long time associate, told me that Dara had insisted on taking his wife which the Army did not approve of.
Masood then took upon himself the role of the watchdog of the team. He lists in his book, how senior players went to bed beyond the 10 p.m. curfew, and how many went to see "Menaka's dancing" [read, visited nightclubs]. He even wrote, "The personality of Dhyan as captain does not seem to impress even the most junior amongst us".
Dhyan Chand's popularity, ala Dhanraj Pillay, has long been the problem for some of his team mates. 99-year old Feroze Khan, the oldest living hockey gold medallist (1928) and now living in Pakistan, said in a reply to my query, "there were many players as competent as Dhyan Chand in my days". But Dhyan Chand did not respond to any of these accusations. He wrote in 'Goal, "I always respect Masood's integrity".
Masood had been an outstanding player. He led the St. Stephen's hockey team (1923-1927) but changed to Hindu College for his post-graduation as he could not afford the monthly fee of Rs. 6.
Hindu waived the fees under 'Hockey Scholarship'. He led the Manavadar team to six consecutive Viceroy Cup victories and won the prestigious Aga Khan Cup in 1933. He lost his gold medal somewhere in transit and died in 1991. The man was buried in Nizamuddin cemetery.