Hyderabad: The famed Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is renowned for its cricketing history. It has the distinction of hosting the cricket’s first Test match, played between Australia and England, with Dave Gregory-led Aussies prevailing over the English. Over the centuries this colosseum sort of stadium has witnessed many remarkable cricket matches. But the Melbourne Cricket Ground, outrageously named after a game despite having a rich history of hosting multiple sports and events, is not merely known for cricket. Cricket at MCG is an incomplete story.
The Big G, as MCG is known now, in fact, the main venue for the 1956 Olympic Games. Hence, categorising MCG as a cricket arena alone will not complete its iconic stature. Among its many remarkable sights, from the Indian perspective, was hosting the Indian national football team in the Olympic bronze medal match. It was when the Indian cricket team was still taking baby steps into the game.
India lost to Bulgaria in the bronze medal match, but a feat was achieved as the ‘Brazil of Asia’ — as India was called then because of the captivating football they played — enjoyed their finest hour in international football finishing with an honourable fourth position.
The splendid achievement, which though could have been even better had the bronze was won, marked the rise of Hyderabad’s Magnificent Seven. It showed how diverse Indian football was back in the 1950s. Lost in the struggle of time, Hyderabad football then was considered one of the powerhouses of Indian football.
The City of Nizams, as Hyderabad is referred to, produced numerous football icons who over the last 50 years of the 20th century shone brightly for India in international events, and in 1956 seven of its boys took India to the pinnacle of its footballing history, a fourth-place finish in the Olympics in an era when International Olympic Committee was yet to implement the age cap rule.
Though they could not make it to the podium, their achievements have always been highly regarded both in Indian and international football. Then a FIFA official Stanley Rous, who would later become the president of the world football governing body, was stunned to see the rise of Indian football in the international arena. He was amazed not because India played the semi-final in the Olympics, but because four years back India was a "barefooted team". So, his question was how a team could adapt to boot within four years of preparations.
Rous could not believe his eyes, so he entered the Indian dressing room with an earnest will to know how India made this tremendous progress in such a short time. He inquired about the coach of the Indian team. Rous was introduced to Syed Abdul Rahim, but he refused to accept the fact that a school teacher had made Indians play in boots.
Ahmed Hussain, aka Lala, was among the last few survivors of that 1956 glory. A technically sound Hyderabadi defender, known for hard tackling and neat man-marking, succumbed to COVID-19 infection on April 16 at his Bengaluru residence at the age of 89.
Born in 1932, being a jewel of Hyderabad football it was obvious for Hussain to play for legendary Hyderabad City Police, a team that was managed by the Indian national team’s Hyderabad based coach Rahim.
While playing for the police team he was selected in the Indian squad for the 1951 Asian Games held in New Delhi. However, Hussain could not find a place in the star-studded national team that won the gold medal. Five years later, a more mature Hussain got Rahim’s nod to play in the Melbourne Olympics after he performed brilliantly in Hyderabad’s Santosh Trophy win in 1956. Hussain was the central defender in India’s famous 4-2 win against Australia in the Melbourne Olympics.
Rahim Saab never wanted to let Hyderabad footballers get lured by Kolkata’s famed and well-oiled clubs. But Hyderabad City Police, being an institutional club, could not hold back many of its top players as club secretaries from Bombay and Kolkata started coming to Hyderabad in search of talented footballers. They offered big money, even luxury cars to eminent players.
No wonder a skilful Hussain in quest of money and recognition left for Kolkata where he played for Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting.
Though he won three Durand Cup and six Rovers Cup titles and was crucial to India’s overwhelming performance in the 1956 Olympic Games, Hussain was never rewarded. After retirement from the game, he took up coaching. In the 1982 Asian Games, during India’s campaign he assisted head coach P.K. Banerjee. Hussain’s eye for talent and confidence in his own abilities came in handy for India.
However, despite making such a telling contribution to Indian football he was left to die unheralded. The sun-set years of his life were overtaken by dementia. He suffered a big blow when his elder son Aziz died a few months back.
As his teammates made their way to their heavenly abode in recent years one by one, Hussain was stranded with the memory of his remarkable football career. Hussain's teammate Noor Mohammed, a 1952 and 1956 Olympian, died like a dog in an Osmanpura slum at the dawn of this century. Noor, like many of his contemporaries, died in abject poverty. He spent a malnourished life and was afflicted by tuberculosis. Another Hyderabadi teammate of Hussain, Syed Abdus Salam, who just like Noor played in the Helsinki and Melbourne Olympics, had spent five years on the bed before dying unnoticed. Adding to this list another name is Mohammed Zulfakaruddin. He had survived on a paltry pension before breathing his last in 2020.
Among these stars, the most notable Hyderabadi footballer Tulsidas Balaram, who is regarded as one of the greatest strikers of Indian football, has now been struggling to make his end meet in Kolkata in his ever bachelor life.
Football is a painful game. It has boasted huge money now, but in its primitive days, there was very little money. These Hyderabadi legends, who are arguably India's some of the finest footballers of all time, never got their due. They lived a common man's life, ate dal, roti, stitched their own boots, entertained unknown journalists, answered questions on their teammates; but like Ahmed Hussain ‘Lala’ they died or lived as unknown figures of this nation. They were left stranded and forgotten by us. Indian football never pays respect to its favourite sons, as if there is no value in remembering heroes of the golden period of Indian football.
By Sudipta Biswas
