Chennai, TAMIL NADU :

We at s2h are very sad to report the sudden demise of Nabi Mohammad, a yesteryear star player of Tamil Nadu. He was 66.

Nabi, a well known international umpire, is father of Md Riaz, who represented India in two Olympics.

Nabi was officiating in the Tamil Nadu inter-district Women Hockey tournament in Nagerkovil in Kanyakumari District, when death came calling.

“He was a great inside-forward, excellent schemer, intelligent player. I played with him for long time in the State. He was an India stuff but did not get chance”,Olympian Munir Sait, said.

“He has devoted his entire life to hockey, and it so happened he died when he was supervising a tournament”, Anil Kumar, a shocked umpire and coach of the Aggarwal Vidhyala in Chennai, said.

“Am an umpire today because of him”, he added.

The mortal remains of departed soul is being brought to Chennai, where he will be cremated tomorrow, by road.

He died due to massive heart attack

This writer met him last month during the Ruskin Inter-School tournament, where he was the tournament director. Before that he assumed the same role for the Syed Ahmad Memorial Cup.

Nabi is a product of famous Govt. Madrasa-I-Azam School, was part of famous Tamil Nadu State team in the 60s.

His other two sons, Jameel and Nawaz also took up hockey and shone. While Jameel plays for Indian Overseas Bank, Nawaz plays for Indian Oil Corporation.

Mrs.Renuka Lakshmi, who organized the Women’s Inter-District Tournament, and on whose invitation Nabi was in Nagerkovil, expressed shock.

“It is really shock for me, he is an out out hockey soul, ready to help everybody for the sake of hockey. We will miss him, it is a big loss, she said.

source: http://www.stick2hockey.com / Stick2Hockey.com – S2h / by K Arumugam / July 01st, 2011