Pratap Shankar Hazra

Pratap Shankar Hazra ( bn, প্রতাপ শংকর হাজরা; born 3 April 1943) is a former Bangladeshi national football and hockey player and coach. He is a former national coach of Bangladesh.

Early life

Pratap was born on 3 April 1943 in Sreenagar Upazila of Munshiganj District in Bengal, British India, the son of Priyo Shankar and Annapurna Hazra. He spent most of his childhood living in Armanitola, Dacca. He passed matriculation from Armanitola High School in 1960 and gained admission to Jagannath College. Pratap passed his higher secondary in 1964 and was admitted to Dacca University, where he majored in Bachelor of Arts.

Club career

Football

Pratap began playing inter-college football in 1961, representing Jagannath College, and eventually joined Victoria SC in the Dhaka First Division League in the same year. In his second year at the club, he won the league title along with the Aga Khan Gold Cup, Independence Day Cup, and Mohammad Ali Bogra Shield. Nonetheless, he rarely entered the pitch in a Victoria team dominated by Makrani players from the Pakistan national team.

In 1963, Pratap joined Mohammedan SC , where he served until his retirement in 1977. Playing as a left-winger, Pratap won the Dhaka League six times, the Aga Khan Gold Cup and Independence Day Cup twice, and the Mohammad Ali Bogra Shield once. He notably scored from a direct corner against Karachi Port Trust in the 1964 Aga Khan Gold Cup final, as both teams shared the trophy after a 1–1 draw. He was also part of the Mohammedan team that were unbeaten league champions in 1969, with his attacking partnership with Ali Nawaz Baloch, Abdullah Rahi and Golam Sarwar Tipu being integral to their success that season.

Hockey

Pratap also participated in the Dhaka First Division Hockey League, starting his career with Wari Club in 1957. He founded Combined Sporting Club in Old Dhaka in 1963, after spending three years at both Wari and Victoria SC. He served both as an organizer and a player at the club, and helped them win the First Division League three times while also clinching a runner-up position in the Atiqullah Cup. He represented the club until the Independence of Bangladesh, after which, he served both Mohammedan and Dhaka Abahani, winning the league title twice at each club. He was also Mohammedan's player-cum-coach during its 1982 league triumph.

International career

Football

East Pakistan football team

In the National Football Championship, Pratap became a champion with Dhaka Division in 1962. He represented the Dacca Division junior team in the National Youth Football Championship in 1963, and the following year, he played for Dacca District in the inter-district football championship. In 1962 and 1963, Pratap represented East Pakistan in exhibition matches against Burma and China. His team suffered 1–9 and 1–11 defeates, respectively.

In 1963, when Bundesliga club Fortuna Düsseldorf toured Pakistan for exhibition matches, Pratap played against them as part of the ''East Pakistan Sports Board XI'' in Dacca. The team was led by Pakistan national team captain Qayyum Changezi.

Pratap also won the inter-university football championship with Dacca University in both 1966 and 1968. In the 1969 edition of the National Youth Football Championship, he represented the eventual winners of the East Zone, East Pakistan Combined University, in their 1–0 victory over the East Pakistan Youth Football Team at Mymensingh Stadium. In the same year, he featured for ''East Pakistan XI'' in a match against the touring Yangzee FC from South Korea.

Pakistan football team

In 1964, he made his Pakistan national team debut, featuring in three exhibition games against Neftçi PFK (formerly ''Neftyanik'') from Baku, Soviet Union. Other East Pakistani players in the team included Zahirul Haque and Balai Dey. On 28 February 1965, he represented Pakistan against Ceylon in an exhibition match held in Colombo, which ended in a 1–3 defeat. That same year, he was appointed vice-captain of the Pakistan Youth Team during their tour of the Soviet Union. Pratap was also included in the national team for the 1967 RCD Cup held in Dacca, East Pakistan. During the tournament, Pakistan suffered 2–0 and 7–4 defeats at the hands of Iran and Turkey, respectively. His final contribution to the Pakistan national team came during four exhibition games against Saudi Arabia, where he replaced Ayub Dar in the starting eleven.

Shadhin Bangla football team

During the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Pakistan Army burned down Pratap's house in Armanitola on the night of 26 March 1971 because he and his family were Hindus. Pratap's family, fled their one-story house and sought refuge in the graveyard of a nearby Armenian Church to save their lives. As a player for Combined Sporting Club, a now-defunct club in Old Dhaka, two of Pratap’s teammates took him to their house in Dhanmondi, where they stayed for two days before crossing the Buriganga River to find shelter in Jinjira. They eventually moved to their village in Sreenagar, Munshiganj, where they stayed for a month.

Later, he fled to Kolkata to join the Mukti Bahini under Hafizuddin Ahmed but was told he wasn't eligible for service by Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury. While in Kolkata, he met Ali Imam, another Dhaka First Division footballer. In June 1971, Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi politician, requested footballers to form a national team on behalf of the Bangladeshi government in exile. Pratap and Imam traveled to Agartala to gather players for the Shadhin Bangla football team. The team aimed to convince Indian Muslims, who believed the trouble was caused by Hindu infiltrators, to support the liberation of Bangladesh.

Initially, the team going by Joy Bangla XI played an exhibition game against Tripura XI on 2 July 1971 in Tripura. The Shadhin Bangla team played their first official match on 25 July 1971 against Nadia XI in Nadia district, with Pratap serving as vice-captain under captain Zakaria Pintoo, based on seniority.

Bangladesh football team

In 1972, Pratap represented Dhaka XI (the unofficial Bangladesh national football team) at the