Early Life
Born at Karachi's Holy Family Hospital, Soldier Bazaar on 9 June 1975, Sohail is a former pupil of Karachi's Habib Public School, the school of many other hockey stars. In fact, it has been rightly remarked that hockey is taught as a subject in this school.
He came from a sporting family; his father, Syed Iftikhar Hussain, was a former first-class cricketer. He represented Karachi as well as Pak Crescent Club, famous for producing Zaheer Abbas. Sohail is eldest of three brothers. Raheel Abbas his younger one is an IT professional and a Professional / First Class Cricketer also involve in Media Doings as well. Sohail has often said that his inspiration came from his uncle, Safdar Abbas,a left-winger who scored against Argentina during the 1974 World Cup as 16-year-old boy. Sohail is keen to emphasize the part played by Safdar, who, Sohail says, inspired him as a youngster.
As a young hockey player, his potential was not realized for some time. He had difficulty making an impact on the professional hockey leagues 1995-98. Like many Pakistani hockey players, he is a product of the Pakistan Junior Squad. An impressive performance in the 18th Junior National Hockey U18 Championship at Quetta 1995 gained him a place in Pakistan Junior squad which drew their home series 2-2 against Germany Juniors. He was not selected for the tour of Netherlands, Germany and Poland, playing next for Pakistan in the 3rd Junior Asia Cup at Singapore in 1996. He staged a comeback in the Pakistan Junior side in 1997, a side which beat Germany Junior in four consecutive test matches.
Four months later, he was dropped from the Pakistan Junior squad. Pakistan Junior team manager Samiullah Khan and coach Ayaz Mahmood were not convinced to include him for the 1997 World Cup staged in Milton Keynes - an underwhelming squad that failed to making it to the Junior World Cup semi-finals for the first time in the cup's 25-year history. Finally, he made his debut the following year on the national team and has since become arguably hockey's most prolific goalscorer of all time.
Sohail, who struck 20 goals in 1998, was in terrific form in 1999 when Pakistan won the Azlan Shah Cup for the first time and got silver in Asia Cup. He was leading scorer in 8th Pakistan-India Series (10 goals), 9th Azlan Shah Cup (12 goals) and 5th Asia Cup (16 goals). Of 16 Asia Cup's goals, seven were against Sri Lanka which allowed him a place in a select band of nine players who registered double hat-tricks in international circuits for Pakistan. His 60 goals in 1999 beat the world record of Litjens (58 goals) and national record of Sardar (50 goals) in one calendar year.
Read more about this topic: Sohail Abbas
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