EX-INDIA NATIONAL HOCKEY PLAYER KEEPING SPORT ALIVE IN OMAN
SSHRUTHI NAIR itting amidst hundreds of his medals, certificates, trophies, banners, and framed newspaper clippings, Saiyed Ali Sibtain Naqvi recalls his journey with hockey as he enthusiastically recounts all of his achievements and contributions to Oman in his ‘museum’. “What you can see is my contribution through my 70 to 75 years-long career, which started in 1947,” said SAS Naqvi proudly gazing at his accolades.
Naqvi came to Oman in 1982 after being appointed the coach of the Omani National team. “In 1982, Dawood Ahmed had visited India, and had requested the Indian authorities to nominate a coach, who can coach the Omani national team for the Asian Games,” said the 87-year-old, recalling that he was initially called only for two years.
It is worth noting that before coming to Oman, Naqvi was a well established player who had represented his state and country in multiple tournaments alongside some of the greatest legends in the sport. “I had the honour to play alongside the greatest player in the world Dada Dhyan Chand, Dada Kishanlal, K D Singh Babu, Balbir Singh, Claudius, and so on. I stopped playing in 1972,” he said, looking at a black and white photograph of him with some of these players, carefully perched on the wall.
When Naqvi came to Oman, he realised that there was a big problem. “There was no Olympic Committee and without an Olympic Committee you can’t participate in the Olympics or Asian Games.” He continued, “Dr Hammad Ahmed Al Ghafri, who had taken over as president, nominated me to start the Olympic Committee and we opened a new office in Ruwi. And I was appointed the Technical Advisor from 1983 to 2003.”
In the two decades that he served in the Olympic Committee, he managed to form a strong national team that represented the Sultanate in several prestigious global tournaments. “I participated in the 1992 Asian Games, 1986 Asian Games, 1982 Olympic Games in Seoul, 1990 Beijing Asian Games, 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, and the 2000 Sydney Olympics,” said Naqvi, without even straining to remember the dates.”
“I had to work day and night as I was alone here. But it was my inspiration, which I couldn’t get in India that I got here.” He added, “All my contributions were recognised after I came to Oman. Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, Minister of Commerce and Industry awarded me the lifetime achievement award in 2011. I’ve also been awarded with the Indo-Oman Friendship Award,” said Naqvi, while mentioning a few of his many achievements here in Oman.
Even today, the dynamic and vivacious old man, who is supremely young at heart and in spirit strides forward with the mission to spread the wings of hockey across the Sultanate. “I am helping Indian schools in establishing hockey. I’ve assembled a girls team recently in Indian School Maabela and Indian School Seeb.”
As he skims through his newspaper clippings and certificates of appreciation, Naqvi pauses at a Sydney postage stamp with his face on it, with a grateful beaming smile, wondering if the fact that another nation has given him such a huge honour should make him ecstatic or question why his own birth nation, where he contributed so much, is yet to give him the Padmashree (Indian civilian honour) that he deserves. Not pondering much on it, he moves on, carefully stacking his documents and arranging his frames in place.