THE 1972 Olympian boxer Malang Baloch, who lives in the trouble-hit Lyari neighbourhood, sees light at the end of the tunnel and looks optimistic about future of sport in the country. He is, indeed, the pride of Lyari.

Malang was just 23 years of age when he represented the country at the Munich Olympics. Reminiscing the events in a candid interview with Dawn, he vividly recalled his participation in the high-profile boxing event as well as the fiasco in the Germany-Pakistan hockey final and the Palestinian terrorists attack on Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village which are still fresh in his mind.

Born in Lyari in 1949 in a poor family, Malang was the eldest of nine siblings — five brothers and four sisters — and remember how his late father, a labourer, faced difficulties to make ends meet.

“As I grew up — when 10 or 11 years — I started practising boxing like other teenagers of the vicinity and after sometime got under the umbrella of Ustad Abdullah who taught me the basics of the sport at Pak National Club. Earlier, I had also heard the name of Ustad Mohammad Sattoo, who was considered the father of boxing in Lyari,” he recalled.

“Boxing is the only sport that features prominently as it has won enormous number of medals in global competitions for the nation and owes a lot to the late Ustad Sattoo,” he said.

Then, there were no facilities, what to say of nutrition. He, however, gave credit to his former employers, the Railways, for supporting sportsmen by hiring them in the formative years of the country. Before joining the Railways, he remained associated with the Navy and later had a long stint with the Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) as a coach before retirement.

After excelling in juniors, he made his mark by outpointing an Armyman in the welterweight final of the 1970 Karachi National Games to clinch gold. Before going for the big show, the Olympic Games, he toured Manila in1970 and Iran in 1971 with the Pakistan team. Two pugilists — Malang (light welterweight) and Jan Baloch (fly weight) — represented the country at the Olympics and the duo was trained by two-time former Olympian boxer Anwar Pasha (1948 and 1952).

Unfortunately, like his compatriots, he also lost the first round bout to a Hungarian boxer on points to make an early exit.

Malang recalled how the Munich Games were suspended for several hours in the aftermath of massacre in the Olympic Village. “We also watched the gruesome attack from our balcony,” he said. “As we had bowed out early in our event, we managed to watch the entire hockey final where the greenshirts, after losing to Germany by a solitary goal, created a huge fuss and brought disgrace to the nation by putting the medals in their shoes.”

Malang again represented the country at the 1974 Tehran Asian Games and the 1975 RCD Games at Ankara before hanging his gloves. He took up coaching after calling it a day from competitive boxing to repay the debt.

Malang’s his two sons — Abdul Malik and Dur Mohammad who is the chief petty officer in the Navy have inherited the love for boxing. However, the former has left the sport and is currently in Muscat. Malang’s other two sons — Muzammil and Sumbul are still quite young. Though Malang is not very educated, he making an effort to teach his children.

For the improvement of boxing in Pakistan, he advocated for creating a pool of promising pugilists across the country including Quetta, where the people have robust physique, and put them in camps under the supervision of local experts. He cited example of the late Abrar Hussain and Asghar Changezi among others who hailed from Quetta. “If budget permits, the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) can also invite a foreign coach,” he said.

Malang also advised the PBF to take the senior boxers on board in decision-making in the larger interest of the sport.

People of Lyari, who are associated with sports, including Malang Baloch, are perturbed with the ongoing turf war that has so far claimed a large number of lives. They have become used to gunshots around them but remain confident that better sense will prevail soon and good days will return.

Published in Dawn March 22nd , 2015

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