Sohail Abbas -World Greatest Flicker Of The Ball

Sohail Abbas, a man of records for being the highest goal scorer in the history of field hockey and captain of Pakistan Hockey team, was the flag bearer from Pakistan in the opening ceremony of London Olympics 2012.

Sohail Abbas is a living – and in fact playing – legend of Pakistan hockey. Although he plays as a defender, he is one of the greatest penalty corner specialists and the highest goal scorer in international hockey today.

The man, Sohail Abbas, is also considered the best short corner expert in world hockey. He has a very strong wrist, a powerful drag flick and a perfected dummy "body dodge" action. He is actually considered the most powerful drag flicker in hockey today. He is immensely accurate with his drag flicks and has a superb conversion rate.

Born on the 9th of June, 1977 in Karachi, Sohail Abbas comes from a family of sportsmen. Although his father was a first class cricketer, it was his uncle Safdar Abbas, the hockey player (a left-winger who scored at the age of 16 against Argentina during the 1973 World Cup), who inspired him.

Records:

Sohail has no dearth of records. Here is a list of some of his more prolific records:

WORLD RECORDS:

·        He is considered the world's most consistent drag-flick converter with a success rate over 65%.

·        Sohail is also among the seven Pakistani hockey players to be capped more than 200 times in the international hockey circuit.

·        Highest number of individual goals (345 till date) in international hockey -- broke Holland's Paul Litjens record of 267 goals on Oct 08 2004 in test vs India at Amritsar.

·        First international hockey player to score 300 plus goals.

·        Highest number of goals in a calendar year: 60 goals in 1999.

·        Fastest to score 100 goals in international hockey: two years six months and 18 days.

·        Fastest to score 200 goals in international hockey: five years five months and 16 days.

·        He has scored one double hat trick and 21 hat tricks in international hockey: a record unmatched in international field hockey.

·        Highest number of goals in a single edition of Asia Cup.

OTHER RECORDS & FEATS:

·        Sohail's tally of 16 goals in the 1999 Asia cup is a record for a single edition of that competition (which he shares with compatriot Hasan Sardar).

·        He is Pakistan's all-time top scorer in Olympics with 19 goals from two Olympics.

·        For a single edition of Olympic Games also, Sohail's tally of 11 goals in the 2004 Olympics is a Pakistan record.

·        For World Cup also, Sohail is Pakistan's overall top scorer with a total of 16 goals from three appearances.

·        He is Pakistan's top scorer in the elite Champion's Trophy as well with 40 goals. In fact, it was also the highest overall tally for this tournament till this year's Champions trophy. It was broken by another great drag flicker of this age, Holland's Taeke Taekema.

·        In a single edition of the Champion's Trophy also Sohail holds Pakistan's record with eight goals (2001 champions).

·        Overall top scorer of the 2004 Olympics with 11 goals.

·        Joint overall top scorer of the 2002 World Cup with 10 goals.