To Hell With Hockey

The Autobiography of Aslam Sher Khan
By Matin Khan, Allied Publishers, 1982

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Binder
Page 4 Page 5 Page 6

Second Chance Wasted

We promised to give every Argentinian player six hockey sticks if they won. It was not to bribe them, but to motivate them to victory.

And the Argentinians proved their friendship to us by defeating Australia by three goals to two.

We were back in the game. The coach turned into a jukebox again.

Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12

fter the disaster against Australia, we turned religious and started praying, "God, please let Argentina win over Australia so that we get another go at the gold medal.".

We promised to give every Argentinian player six hockey sticks if they won. It was not to bribe them, but to motivate them to victory. And the Argentinians proved their friendship to us by defeating Australia by three goals to two.

We were back in the game. The coach turned into a jukebox again. In the deciding playoff against Australia, we played great hockey, reversing the trend of the first encounter. The replay witnessed repeated Indian onslaughts on the Australian goal, but instead of scoring, they kept fumbling and losing control of the ball.

We were cursed for not having any scorer in our team. Surjeet banged in a goal from one of the four corners and five penalty corners we got. The Aussies equalised. The tie-breaker broke our hearts and our hockey reputation to bits.

Someone even suggested that we pull out of the Games. Thank God we did not, or it could have led to penalising us with disqualification.

Divider

A Tense Moment for Aslam and Surjeet

Divider