Tareef Hayat Khan

1. Football

I had my own world as a football juggler during my childhood, spending hours in bouncing the ball against the front wall of my small 8' X 6' Motijheel AGB colony quarter's ground floor front verandah, and trying to achieve several ball controlling skills; or trying to dominate my childhood mates in the small playfield in front of our house every afternoon. When there was urgency to move it to next level, I tried to look for opportunities. The only one I had was a chance to join practice sessions with Shantinagar Football Club (then in Division two in Dhaka League) at dawn during the lazy years of 1987 (after the A-level exam). That I could not do regularly, but it let me to know the fact that football cannot be played barefooted at competitive level (as we used to do in childhood) (well, at least beach football was out of context at that time), and one must be familiarized with the big ground (not like the one in front of my house). 

I was still a barefoot small-goal-post (where the goalkeeper cannot touch the ball with hand) footballer with enough dribbling/passing skill to attract the few local audiences in the neighborhood. I could, however, passed the test at inter-neighborhood level, when my school friend Pavel invited me to play for their team in a friendly match. That was the first time I played with my another school friend Salek, who is comparatively a bigger level player, famous at the school level for his dribbling skills. I knew I had to prove my abilities, and luckily Salek and I made a great team for that match, which we won 6-0, an amazing result considering the big physique of the opponents that somewhat frightened us before the game. Pavel also impressed me with his high level of defending skills, as I did not expect that from him whose first appearance with powerful glasses reminds me more like a scientist, not at all as an athlete that he proved to be he was. It seemed that though we were buddies for a long while, we did not explore that we have another way to bond, which is football. Later, I played in other local'খ্যাপ' matches (playing on hire) as well, but this first one remained as the most memorable one. 

Anyway, these were all still with barefoot. The first challenge for my upgrading towards a serious competitive game of football was when I tried to be part of my hall team during inter-hall championship after entering varsity life (BUET). Well, I could impress my seniors during trial session with my natural dribbling and passing, but that was still on barefoot. Probably, the seniors took it for granted that I might be useful with this skill for the upcoming competition, but what they did not know was that I never played with football boots before, and never played in a standard big size football field before. So, when I was selected for the team as an attacking forward, and when I had to start practice with spiked boots on, my weakness was unfolded. I felt seriously helpless when I found I was not being to able to control the ball with the boots on. I could not dribble, and I did not have the measurement of how much force to apply to pass the ball to a certain distance. That immediately dampened my image as a potential prospect for the team. But luckily I had one or two sympathetic eyes, who came to me, understood the problem, and gave some useful tips. I did not give up, and in the next few days, I improved and almost recovered my lost image. The dribbling was not coming, but the passing improved almost close to my barefoot level. I was also able to read the field, and run at required pace. For the first time I realized that I had to run a lot in real game, even if I did not have the ball. That forced me to extract all my extra stamina. I really gave all I could, and it paid off. I was able to make a mark in the tournament as a part of the team. Our team was very balanced. My 'Suhrawardi Hall' was champion, not only that year, but three times in a row in '89, '90, '91. It was the first time in the history of BUET that a team achieved a hattrick of the championship. I was the left winger in all three occasions, scored goal in final once. I must say, we had a great team along all these three years. In the first year we had Arefin vai at goal, Mahbub vai, Shamim vai, and unforgettable Babu vai in the defence. They were super fast in chasing down the opponent striker, supersolid in defending. Mostofa vai was the 'Ronaldo' (from Brazil) of BUET, who could ensure a goal in any-one-to-one situation, with his accurate long and medium ranged shots. We also had two Ikbal vais and Parvez vai in the midfield, Asif Khan, the robot-like giant in the defense and many others were also there during those years.

O, yes, one more incident. We also had the only one inter-dept 6-a-side 'small-goal-post' football tournament during our stay in BUET, in which I was a part of Architecture team. Civil Engg. dept. was the favorite, and we also lost to them in the group match. But we reached final along with them, and I stunned myself and the opponents when I scored an early goal just after 3 min. Civil recovered and scored two, but then in one fabulous move (haha) near the end of the game, I gave a perfect through pass to Parvez vai, who scored from an unbelievable distance to level the score at 2-2. That took the game directly to the tiebreakers, when my classmate Tanvir Titash and I kept our post. It was 3-3 after 5 penalty shots each. Then we moved to sudden death when both teams scored the first shot. At that point, our then Vice-Chancellor Shajahan Sir, who was watching the game as the chief guest, could not stand it anymore. He came down running, and said there will be 'joint champions' :-) and that's how it finished. With a coin toss, architecture won the right to keep the trophy for the first six months, which I believe was never given to civil :-)

2. Cricket

In our childhood, indoor sporting facilities were very few, and mostly beyond our reach (they were for professionals only). We were at the mercy of mother nature whether weather could let us play in a particular afternoon or not. For the same reason, we used to play football during wet season (summer, with more chance to rain), and Cricket and Badminton in dry season (winter, with less chance to rain). The ground would be hard in winter, and that was the appropriate time to play cricket. We used to play with the tennis ball, and with the soft bat that is a common trend in this part of the world. There was no option to become a spinner, because, honestly a slower bowler was likely to be hit mercilessly every ball. So nobody ever dared to dream to become a spinner in tennis ball cricket. So, I was a medium pacer. I was also a hard-hitting batsman, and again, honestly, that was probably the only option in tennis ball cricket for a batsman. No one ever thought about defending any ball even it was a good ball, because that was considered to be a cowardly act. Moreover, even if one missed the ball while hitting, there is no danger of getting hurt. So, why not whack every ball. Therefore, it was safe to say that any good player was bound to be a medium pacer and a hard heater. My natural instinct was good enough for batting and bowing, and I was a good fielder both in ground fielding and in catching. I was often hired by local neighborhood big brothers to play tournaments for their team, and gained some reputation for that. However, that still did not give me enough confidence to look for a place in my departmental cricket team when I entered varsity life. The reason? Well, I never played cricket with Cricket ball until then, and I was not sure whether I could play with Cricket ball that is actually made of wood and covered with leather.

However, in some lesser occasions, some of my friends in the varsity did see my skills with tennis ball cricket and asked me to come to practice in the nets for a chance to enter the department cricket team. I skipped the first year, and finally, in the second year I shook off my shyness, and one day I arrived at the net. Well, from my instinct, I felt that I should not bowl pace, as it seemed to me that I will not be able to master the skill with the cricket ball, which needs certain methods of grips to achieve different pace, swing, and cuts. And also I figured out that most of the bowlers were pacers, but spinner were very few. Well, I discovered earlier that I could turn tennis ball with my leg-spin, so I introduced myself as a leg-spinner. To my surprise, I could not turn the cricket ball noticeably. I was very embarrassed with myself and was already pondering that I lost my chance to impress. However, my accurate line, length, bounce, and a bit extra pace kept the seniors convinced that I could be useful.

For the batting, well, as I have said, I never ever wore pads, gloves, guards, or even lifted a cricket bat, which appeared to be seriously heavy compared to my tennis ball cricket-bat. But I thought it would be wise not to disclose that, and I secretly continued to watch the others how to wear all those. When my turn for batting came, almost near the end of my first day at the net, it was actually lucky for me because there were not many serious bowlers left to bowl. I carefully wore the accessories, and took one bat, actually for the first time in my life, and headed for the net. I found it very different to grip the bat because as a right-hander, my right hand (bottom hand) was holding the bat very differently than how I hold it with a bare hand when I bat with tennis ball cricket-bat. The first few balls came, and I tried to connect them defensively, and the bat was turning towards left, for which I could not direct the ball in the direction I wanted to push it. Some of my seniors asked me to hold the grip tightly, while some others asked me to make a bigger step while playing. That was actually my first lesson on facing a cricket ball with a cricket bat, and every bit of it was useful. However, I believe I had the instinct and the will, and in few days, I got hold on the batting, and gradually got confidence in leg-spins also, though there was almost zero-turn in spinning the ball which was a bit frustrating for me.      

In the meantime, there was a coincidence that prominent Leg-spinner in Bangladesh, Chaand Khan (চাঁদ খান) advertized that he was arranging a 'Leg Spin Training academy', which I eagerly took part in Dhaka National Stadium. There, for the first time, I found so many leg-spinners together, which motivated me further. As before, I could not turn the ball in the pitch, but Chaand Khan surely found something useful in me, and he seleeted me for further training. From this camp, I learnt several valuable lessons in leg spin bowling including how to create variety in pace, amount of turn, or flight, with simple changes in the action of delivery or the time of releasing the ball during delivery. He also gave me tips on how to deliver googley with natural action. After all these years, I feel very lucky to attend that training. 

I played for Architecture team in BUET with such dedication as if my life were at stake for that, and had some unforgettable innings against our opponents. I remember specially the one we won by 3 runs (110/107), when I rescued the team from 35/6 to be the last man out with a patient score of 45 that included a six and a four. Civil department was undisputed champions during those days, and we had to settle for runner up three times in a row . But that was quite an achievement considering the scarcity of player we find from our small department. Our big figures in the team such as Shayer vai, Ehsan vai, Showkat vai, and then Riyaad, Bayezid vai, Tito, Selim (the great wicket keeper cum opener), and many more.....all played their part.

Later on, I must have impressed the University team selection committee, as I was picked to play for BUET team for the last two seasons in my student life. The memorable game was when I we played against 'Biman' in National Cricket, and cleaned up national opener Zahid Razzak Masum's off stamp with a deceptive googley. There are a lot of memories of my magnificient teammates starting with Riyaad (my Govt. Lab High School classmate, and BUET lecturer) , and then Hasan, Tanu, Noman, Hafiz, Jakir vai, Kaisar vai, Chunnu vai, and many more I can't  recall right now....

3. Badminton

Playing badminton was one of the yearlong waitings for us during our childhood. We waited for the winter to come, when winds became gentle, and we could play badminton in our playfield. Often we played in the evenings with homemade lightboards on, after completing school homeworks, and getting permission from our mothers. In those days, we did not have any indoor faicilites readily available for public :-) Playing relentlessly against neighborhood friends was fun, especially with my childhood friend Asif. But I didn't really know which level I belong until I entered a neighborhood championship at the age of 18. That was my first competitive tournament, and I did not even bothered to wear sporting outfits. The organizers allowed it only as I admitted I had none. I won first few matches with comparative ease, but catched the eye of others only when I surprisingly defeated the top seed in a group match. That probably gave me a bit over-confidence as I lost the next match very badly to a comparitively mediocre player. Luckily I still managed to reach the final, where I met the top seed again. This time I could not perform the same way as before, because probably my opponent was better prepared, and may be I took it more casually as if reaching the finals already helped me to achieve my goal. However, that event gave me the confidence to play at the competitive level. Later, I entered a little bigger tournament immediately afterwards. I was more professional in my attitude this time, and analyzed each of my game in order to perform even better in the next one. I reached the final again through the knock-out stages, and to my surprise, my old buddy Asif appeared to be my opponent. In our regular meetings every winter afternoon, I hardly remember losing to him, though he was a tough competitor. But in this all important final, to my surprise, he won the first game, and I was on the verge of losing to him at the then most important badminton game in my life. Luckily I regrouped, and tried to use all my memories to detect his weaknesses, and came back to win the next two games and the championship. It was even covered in the media at that time! It was my first badminton trophy, and my only encounter with Asif at any competitive level. Later on, I entered several other local tournaments with mixed results. However, what I got the confidence that I can actually do well at badminton even at higher level, because in those competitions I met several national level players as well. All I need to do was to improve technic and stamina. So far, I used only my natural skills.

In fact, that natural skill was already enough for me to win three consecutive titles in Suhrawardi Hall singles and doubles championship while I was in BUET, and if not only my old Govt. Lab School mate Ziaul were there in BUET, I could have been BUET champion as well ;-) I had to be content as number 2. Subsequently, I became part of BUET badminton team and played in Inter-University badminton championship, where I also met several other national players. Lucky for me, I was picked by the then National badminton coach Akhteruzzaman Nantu (Late) during that tournament, He gave me the opportunity to come and join his training course at National Wooden Floor Gymnasium in Dhaka. I took that chance, and going there at 6:30 am everday, preceding my architecture classes in BUET, still gives me complacence about my abilities at that time of my life. There I learnt some basic formal rules such as three step rule footwork, backhand returns, smashing, netting etc. that gave me satisfaction as a highest level amateaur badminton player, even though I could not carry on due to pressure from my architectural studies.

Postscript: Some failed attempts

Swimming

I learnt to swim, finally,  in Leuven, Belgium, at the age of 30, during when I was completing my Masters degree. I learnt only Breast-Stroke though. But still I consider it as an achievement because before this, I was afraid of even just wading in a pool. At age 35, I finally learnt to swim freestyle while I was doing my PhD in HK University. Buyoed by that, I tried to learn butterfly, but failed :-( And it is already too late to enter any competition any more.

Running

I could run quite fast at childhood, and was always eager to challenge any similar age fellows around me to short distance running. But somehow I slowed down during mid-teen and rather concentrated on long distance. I even won a third place in a mini-marathon in our neighborhood. That led me to enter in higher level competitions. But when I entered the 10,000m in  BUET Annual Athletics, during my first year of study, and was 'lapped' by eventual winner Pinu vai (the outstanding athlete from Sher-e-Bangla Hall), I gave up running for good :-) I think that's enough running for me already.

Skating

I never had a chance to try skating in early life. When I was in Europe, I was tempted to learn two things: unicycle, and roller skating. None of them was fulfilled. Not enough time is left any more in this routined daily life to learn those, I guess. Probably more importantnly, fear of falling or getting injured makes me frightened I grew older :-) At last, I had a chance to try skating in rink while in Malaysia, but after two falls (and luckily, without serious injuries), I think its time to give up those aspirations.