Pakistan inherited some big hockey centres in 1947. Some of them, such as Rawalpindi, Bannu, Peshawar, etc., owed their hockey culture to the sporting tradition of the British army at the cantonments.

A few were lucky to have educational institutions where sports flourished, as in Lahore. Karachi benefited from a number of players who had migrated from India. Gojra, a tiny town of district Toba Tek Singh (current population 650,000), wasn’t so fortunate. It was one Mohammed Yaqoob, the physical training instructor at the Government M.C. High School, who sowed the seeds of hockey in Gojra.

In 1968, Aslam Roda, a hockey player from the town, a full-back, became the first international player from Gojra when he took to the field in the Pakistan-Japan test series. From the early 1970s, the town’s representation in the national team began to increase. The Pakistan team at the 1973 World Cup included three Gojra players.

Roda’s international career was short-lived but he played a pivotal — in fact, revolutionary — role, in making Gojra the big nursery of the game. He was also joined in this by another Pakistan international of the early 1970s, Iqbal Bali.

It has been 10 years since the passing of Ustad Aslam Roda, but Gojra hockey is still thriving thanks to the seeds he sowed there decades ago

Recently, a highly successful Ustad Aslam Roda Memorial Tournament was held in Gojra to pay tribute to the great man who rendered invaluable services to Gojra hockey and, in turn, Pakistan hockey as a grassroots coach.

Aslam Roda ran the Gojra Sports Club and trained the boys at the M.C. High School ground. The Gojra Sports Club gradually became a conveyor belt of quality players. For the last more than 40 years, since the early 1980s, Gojra players have figured in every Pakistan hockey team, national or age group, which has participated in an international event.

Six Gojra lads were part of the team in the 1993 edition of the Junior World Cup, where the country’s last medal in that tournament, a silver, came. In 1994, Pakistan lifted the World Cup for the last time. There, too, the winning squad had five Gojra players. Most of them had graduated from Roda’s Gojra Sports Club. The same year, acknowledging Gojra’s contribution to hockey, the Pakistan government approved a synthetic turf for the town. The turf was installed in a new stadium that was completed in the year 2000. From there on, Roda’s Gojra Sports Club training shifted to the new stadium.

For a long time, women’s hockey in the country was limited to Karachi. Roda expressed his desire to see Gojra girls play the game too. People raised doubts about the idea. They believed that it was fine for women to play hockey in the big cities but not in a small conservative town such as Gojra. Roda proved them wrong.

It was in 2005, when women hockey in Gojra took proper root under his supervision. In no time, Gojra women were winning national selection. Like their male counterparts, their representation in the Pakistan teams increased. At times the national team has included as many as eight Gojra girls.

Hockey has had far-reaching effects on the town of Gojra. It has also become a source of employment. The players get jobs in departmental teams such as WAPDA, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Sui Southern Gas Company, various banks, the Police, Army, Pakistan Air Force, Navy, Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL), etc.

Some 80 male players nurtured by the ‘Ustad’ went on to play for Pakistan’s national and age group teams.

What made him so successful? According to one of his distinguished pupils, Pakistan’s former captain Tahir Zaman, it was Roda’s complete commitment and excellent coaching methods. Tahir, one of the finest inside-rights of his time, won golds at the World Cup, Asian Games and Asia Cup, and bronze at the Olympics in his long international career (1987-1998).

He says: “Ustad Roda devoted 18 out of 24 hours to hockey. After the morning training session, he mostly had his breakfast on the ground. Then he would go out in the town to see the parents of the trainees, to inquire if they required any help, and also about the child’s behaviour at home.

“He regularly called on local people who supported the club. His sincere work and success gained him a lot of respect in the town. The club’s needs were met through well-off local people who voluntarily made donations and arranged for hockey sticks, balls, etc. After having his lunch at home, it was back to the ground for the evening session’s preparation.

“Sometimes, when the club’s team came late to the town after playing outside Gojra, he even slept on the ground. As a coach, he laid great emphasis on basic skills, such as stopping, hitting, passing, receiving, tackling, elimination, etc. He would practically demonstrate each by breaking down the skills into parts. I have done several FIH coaching courses, but what Ustad taught me still comes in very handy.

“Sports psychology is a recent development. Roda was a shrewd analyst of the players’ personalities and treated each of them accordingly. It was a labour of love as well as his love for Gojra players.

“He was a Pakistan Railways’ sports department employee, which enabled him to stay in the town. Some other departments approached him with lucrative offers.

That meant moving out of Gojra, and Roda always refused.”

The great mentor, credited with producing around 80 senior and junior male internationals, passed away in 2013. His death was widely mourned. Roda’s former pupil Khawar Javaid, Pakistan’s international of the 1990s, took up the mantle from him and has been running the affairs of the Gojra Sports Club to date. To honour the great man, the young players’ section of the club is now operating as the Ustad Aslam Roda Academy.

To pay tribute to him on his 10th death anniversary, recently, the Ustad Aslam Roda Memorial Hockey Tournament was held in Gojra. Played under floodlights during Ramazan, the magnificently staged seven-day event was participated in by eight of the country’s top teams.

As one would expect, the people of Gojra thronged the stadium in large numbers. For the final between Wapda and MPCL, the stadium — with a seating capacity of 10,000 — was overflowing with people, including families. There was no place left even to stand. One can’t recall such a big crowd in a domestic match for a long time now. The winner and runner-up sides received good prize money. The locals bore all the expenses of the tournament held in the memory of the great son of the soil. The event also received good media coverage. The semi-finals and final were broadcast live by PTV sports.

After the huge success of the event, plans are already afoot to make the Ustad Aslam Roda Memorial Tournament an annual affair. There is also a longstanding demand to name the Gojra Hockey Stadium after Ustad Aslam Roda. No one deserves this honour more than the man who made the greatest contribution towards making a small town the biggest nursery of the national sport of Pakistan.

The writer is a freelance sports journalist based in Lahore.
He tweets @IjazChaudhry1 and can be
contacted at ijaz62@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 9th, 2023