The calibre of a top player comes shining through when a beaten opponent salutes him. Pakistan hockey legend Hasan Sardar ran riot through most defences in the 1980s to emerge the world's best centre-forward. But there was one team, and a particular set of players in that line-up, who worked hard to combat the mercurial striker, half succeeded but praise him nevertheless. Team India's Bombay boys Joaquim Carvalho, Merwyn Fernandis and MM Somaya were men on a mission in the mid-80s.

Sardar recollected how the trio troubled him and his team back then. "Carvalho was this big guy who was always after me and would tackle me by hook or by crook. Banda jaye par ball na jaye [let the man go but not the ball] is something we always said, but it was Carvalho who practised it. He had a brilliant reach and would block me on either side with his tackles. Merwyn was an inside-ride and used to put some brilliant diagonal balls beating our defence hands down. And Somaya was this sturdy right half, who nullified our left flank," Sardar, here with the Pakistan team as manager for the ongoing World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium, told mid-day yesterday.