Indian hockey great Mohammad Shahid who passed away this Wednesday after battling severe liver and kidney ailments was one of the finest forwards India has produced. He was admired and feared world over for his mesmeric stick skills and body feints.

In his early career, like most of the inside forwards, Shahid was mainly a playmaker and feeder who created goals for his centre forwards apart from earning penalty corners and strokes. According to an assessment at the 1980 Champions Trophy, Shahid was responsible for 23 out of 32 penalty corners earned by India.

At the1982 World Cup, famed Pakistani sports journalist Farooq Mazhar, the then chairman of the Media Commission of FIH, warned, "One should fear the day Shahid turns into a scorer from a dribbler".

Shahid was the best thing to happen to Indian hockey in ‘80s. " Later, he did become a good scorer. But his real contribution to his team was still as the playmaker.  Zafar Iqbal, also a former Indian captain and the left out with whom Shahid formed a deadly partnership on the field, once remarked, "We had a few shortcomings, penalty corner being one of them. Shahid earned us numerous corners but we never managed to convert."

Had India possessed some penalty corner specialist like Sohail Abbas in his time, they might have mounted the podium at the Olympics/World Cups quite a few times. Many rate him as India’s most artistic player since Dhyan Chand of pre-independence days.

His was a rags-to-riches story. Like so many hockey greats of the sub-continent who learnt the skills on streets, Shahid developed his craft in the slums of Varanasi, also called Benaras. In those lanes and bylanes, he would bewilder all with his deft stick work. Little wonder, his precocious talent got him spotted early on. Still in school, Shahid was picked up by the Lucknow Sports Hostel. Soon, he was appearing for India’s junior national side. After figuring in a few junior internationals, he graduated to the senior side for the high profile Esanda World Hockey Tournament in Australia in 1979. He was not yet 19. Shahid was the youngest member of the Indian team which won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics; his country’s last medal at the Olympics/World Cup.

M K Kaushik, a senior member of that squad recalls, "He was very young, bristling with energy and enthusiasm. It’s all his back passes that enabled Surinder Singh Sodhi to become the top scorer. His slim frame and the manner in which he made many penalty corners remain in my memory."

In the 1982 Champions Trophy, India finished 3rd. That remained their best position till the 36th edition of the Champions Trophy this year (India were second at the 2016 Champions Trophy). He also won silver at the 1982 Asian Games and bronze at the 1986 Asian Games. Mohammad Shahid captained India in 1985-86.

The 1988 Olympics was his last international engagement. In their last match, as in the previous Olympics, India needed a draw to reach the semi-finals. This time, against Great Britain, India played defensively and lost the match 0-3. Shahid was played for less than 20 minutes. Extremely dejected, he announced his retirement soon after.

In Shahid’s international career (1979-1988), apart from the gold fetched at the boycott-hit 1980 Olympics, India didn’t achieve anything significant on the international scene, though they were unfortunate quite a few times.

At the 1982 World Cup they were very unlucky to miss out on a semifinal spot. Needing only a draw against Australia in the final league fixture, India were deprived by an Aussie winner only five minute before the final whistle.

He was so often a lone hero in the losing team. Many, especially those who believed in the Asian style of hockey, remember him as the man who provided the much needed saving grace. The government of India awarded him with Arjuna Award in 1980-1981 and Padma Shri in 1986.

His 1980 Olympic gold medal winning captain Baskaran tells something special about the phenomenon, "He was a natural left-hander. Often when one is dribbling and a defender gets in the way, the general tendency is to shift to the right so that we can get a clear shot. So defenders would anticipate the forwards to do that and they’d block the attacker. They’d also think Shahid would move to his right. But Shahid was lefty; he’d fake the defender into thinking that he’s going right, then left and speed off at ease.

"Then there were his one-hand tricks. He had a strong left hand. He could dribble one-handed and make passes that way. It really caught many people off guard."

He would run from one end of the pitch to the other, dribbling past opponents as if they didn’t exist. The opposing teams used various tactics to counter him. Players were assigned to mark him. Sometimes the defenders were told to stop Shahid early in his dribbling run by committing some foul.

From 1982-1986, legendary Hasan Sardar of Pakistan was universally acknowledged as the world’s best player. Pakistan and India started playing regular bilateral series from 1978. In 1986, under Shahid’s captaincy, India won the bilateral series, for the first time, 3-2. Hasan, Pakistan’s captain said, "We have not lost to India but Shahid".

The on-field rivalry between Hasan and Shahid can be compared to that of Messi and Ronaldo we see today in La Liga.

His death was mourned widely in India. Condolence messages poured in from the Prime Minister to country’s most beloved sportsman of the generation. Sachin Tendulkar said: "Watching Mohammad Shahid’s magic with the hockey stick was memorable."