From the 1978 World Cup till early 1981, Pakistan had been on a winning spree. On the eve of the third Champions Trophy in January 1981, the greatest pair of full backs in Pakistan’s history, Manzoorul Hasan and Munawwaruz Zaman (who was the captain as well), was shown the door.
The world champions had a real jolt in the third Champions Trophy, failing to win their first tournament since the 1976 Olympics. They couldn’t even mount the podium, ending fourth.
Good sense prevailed and the PHF realised its folly of omitting both the fortresses of deep defence simultaneously. Right full back Manzoorul Hasan was recalled.
A preparatory tour of Europe wasn’t successful. Pakistan failed to win either of the two four-nation tourneys in Germany and Holland. The only success came in a low profile tournament in Poland.
Brigadier (rtd) Manzoor Hussain Atif, the shrewdest of the hockey brains, who was also the sitting secretary general of the PHF, took charge of the team as the manager.
Keeping in view the humid conditions of the World Cup’s venue -- Bombay (now Mumbai) -- Karachi was chosen for the training camp.
A home and away four Test series against India was arranged. The series went to the wire and Pakistan won the last Test to emerge victorious by 2-1, with one game drawn.
By the time the team reached Bombay in the last days of 1981, it had evolved into a great combination. Pakistan trounced Argentina 6-1 in their opener. Next, the Spanish armada was sunk with two goals in each half, 4-1 being the final score line.
Pakistan demolished New Zealand, the surprise gold medallists of the 1976 Olympics, 12-3.
The mean and keen West German side stretched Pakistan to the fullest. It was only when Samiullah scored in the 68th minute (to make it 5-3) that Pakistan heaved a sigh of relief.
Pakistan remained a superior side throughout, one weak link came to the fore, goalkeeping on the penalty corners.
With topping the pool guaranteed, Pakistan played all the reserves against Poland in the last pool game and won by 4-1.
Having put on such an impressive show, easily overriding every opponent, Pakistan had become everyone’s favourite.
But manager Atif was a worried man. Goalkeeper Moinuddin had been badly beaten on penalty corners against Germany. Atif was fearful of Holland’s penalty corner king Paul Litjens -- the highest scorer in a single World Cup as well as overall top-scorer in the World Cup history.
The other net-minder was 17-year-old Shahid Ali Khan, who prior to appearing in the last pool match had an international experience of less than one match -- Pakistan’s 11-1 victory against Zimbabwe in a Test a few months back.
But Atif had been impressed by Shahid’s performance against Holland and Litjens in a side match the Dutch played on their tour to Pakistan just before the World Cup. Hence, to the surprise of almost everyone, Shahid was put against Holland in the semi-final.
The teenager justified his selection by letting only one goal off half a dozen penalty corners. But the moment that is still fresh in everyone’s memory who saw the match was Shahid’s acrobatic save off a penalty stroke taken by Kruise, who was playing the fifth of his record six World Cups. That act of heroism by one of the youngest players in that World Cup, in front of 40,000 people spurred the whole Pakistan team and there was no looking back. Waves after waves of Pakistani attacks ensued, mostly orchestrated by left-in Hanif, and the Dutch were lucky in the end to lose only 2-4.
Pakistan’s vintage attacking display had now made everyone agree, pundits and ordinary fans alike, that the World Cup was flying back to Pakistan and the final was a mere formality. But the Pakistani contingent was in for a shock. A person no less than the President of the FIH, Rene Frank, remarked that the traditional sub-continental style based on five forwards had become out-dated.
Pakistan answered him on the field in the final and in no uncertain terms. With India not making the knockout phase, the locals had become great supporters of Pakistan, seeing them as the torch bearers of the sub-continental style of play and the majority of the 40,000-plus crowd in the final was backing Pakistan.
The simplest way to summarise the final: one-way traffic. For almost all the time, the Pakistanis retained the possession.
The Germans went ahead as early as the sixth minute through a goal by Dopp resulting from a misunderstanding between full back Manzoorul Hasan and goalkeeper Shahid.
Thereafter, Pakistan put up a most aggressive performance. Hasan Sardar tapped in the equaliser from a corner in the 25th minute. Hardly a minute passed when Manzoor Jr in a flash of genius scored the finest goal of the knockout rounds. Receiving the ball near the half line, the legendary right in weaved patterns around the German defence and from the right side of the circle his powerful shot found the smallest of the angles past the German goalkeeper.
There was no respite for the Germans even after the change of the sides. A Hanif effort was stopped with a foot and Kalimullah capitalised on the resulting penalty stroke.
Pakistan were awarded another penalty stroke and as Kalimullah was walking up to the spot, something unbelievable happened. Succumbing to sustained pressure by the protesting Germans, the French umpire Reanud reversed the decision. However, skipper Akhtar Rasool took the decision very sportingly. The final score-line of 3-1 did scant justice to the absolute domination of the Pakistanis.
Pakistan lifted the cup for the third time and also rewrote the record book:
- The first nation to win back-to-back World Cups
- In 1978, they had become the first team to win the World Cup without losing a single match, in fact winning all of them. This time Pakistan went one better, winning all their matches by a margin of at least two goals.
- Their tally of 38 goals is an all-time World Cup record.
- 12 goals against New Zealand was the new highest for a single World Cup match.
- Sardar’s total of 11 goals was a World Cup record for a forward.
- Akhtar became the first player to have three World Cup winner medals.
Goalkeepers: Moinuddin and Shahid Ali Khan Full backs: Manzoorul Hasan, Qasim Zia and Nasir Naseer
Half backs: Rasheedul Hasan, Akhtar Rasool, Saeed Ahmed and Ishtiaq
Forwards: Kalimullah, Manzoor Hussain Jr, Hasan Sardar, Hanif Khan, Samiullah, Saleem Sherwani and Saeed Khan
Scorers: Hasan Sardar 11, Kalimullah 8, Manzoorul Hasan 6, Hanif Khan 4, Samiullah 4, Saeed Khan 2, Manzoor Jr 1, Saleem Sherwani 1, Rasheedul Hasan 1

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