Abdul Waheed Khan

Abdul Waheed Khan was one of the greatest centre forwards to play hockey for Pakistan. He was the first player for the country to score 50 goals in international matches.

Born in 1936 in Rajpur, British Raj, Waheed’s family moved to Pakistan in 1949. After originally playing football, he began to play hockey after joining C.P. Gymkhana. His first international matches for Pakistan came in 1954, in a series against Germany.

In 1956, Waheed was named as one of the probables to represent Pakistan at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but he was not selected for the final team. However, four years later, he was selected for the 1960 Roma Olympics. Pakistan won the hockey tournament, beating India in the final, to claim the country’s first Olympic gold medal. In 1962, Waheed was part of Pakistan’s gold medal winning team at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games. In the final, also against India, Waheed scored a goal. He was the tournament’s leading goal scorer with 17 goals, which included two hat-tricks. Waheed was due to compete at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but he fractured his thumb whilst training and was not selected.

In 1978, Waheed became the manager of the Pakistan hockey team. The national team went on to win multiple tournaments, including the Quaid-e-Azam tournament, the Champions Trophy, World and Asia Cups, and the first-ever Pakistan-India series at home. Waheed also wrote a book on hockey which discussed tactics and strategy.