For the first two years of his international career,Zakauddin remained under the shadow of Abdul Hamid Hamidi, the skipperandinside right par excellence.But to be understudy to Hamidi,who enen in those halcyon days was a larger than life figure , was in itself an acknowledgement of zaka being the genuine article.
Luckily for zaka, he was neither frustrared at twiddling his thumbs on the bench nor was he past his prime when Hamidi chose to abdicate after the '60 Rome Games .By then the youngster had already been a veteran of the '58 Tokyo Asiad and as part of the Olympic outfit also had a taste of glory in the Eternal City .Primed to take on the world, he craved for more of the same, and in his own right.

IN india 1996, India for the first time broke Pakistan's exclusive possession in the Asiad gold, and that spelt curtains for captian Munir Dar,zaka's cousin. That alsi happened to be Zaka's last major international tournament; he felt he was good enough for another try at the Olympic gold in 1968 But was denied the chance . Zaka must have felt cheated, but eas amply compensated as he came back to coach and manage sides which brought him justic fied acclaim and the nation gold and glory.Behind a carefree facade,Zaka was a tough cookie and epito-mised a competitive streak. Once with a fiery timper, he played his game hard,with no quarter asked ot given .At the same time he eas the one who believed in finesse,in style,in using his brains instead of were brawn. He brought the same characteristics to his coaching and carries a reputation the world over of being an authentic hockey brain.As a coach, he was not mindlessly committed to the subcontinental style of positional play.He was the kind who would prefer to err on the side of indiscretion rather than try the trodden path, even if that meant inviting the wrath of the purists. And for one who believed in partying hard and ling, his commitment to his assignments was beyound reproach,and he never let even the considerations of his police career stand between him and hockey .A hard taskmaster,he still endeared hemself to players, especially those whom he guided to the '82 World Cup, the Asia cupin the same year and later to the'84 Los Angeles Olympics gold.There were drawbacks too, one was his being overly sensitive and another was his capacity to alienate people.To a lesser extent,as coach there has been another shortcoming too; on occasions he lost interest and concentration midway through a tournament once he believed the top position was no longer within reach.Such as during the '82 and the '87 Champions Trophy.

But no coach,howsoever great,has won them all.And for some one who has coached and managed sides from 1972 to 1999, the honours Zaka won far outweigh the failures. After the unsavoury incidents of the '72 Munich Olympics,Zaka too was banned by the FIH with the team.That was his first appointment as coach, and he got the rough and of the FIH stick for no fault of his .Then in 1982 for the Bombay World Cup,Air Marshal(Retd) Nur Khan brought him back in troubled times, and he delivered, following it up with the '84 LOs Angeles triuh,triumph, a period hardly rumble-free behind the scenes not to mention the on- field problems. Ten years down the road, in 1994 he was again called to serve the national team as manager .He, along with Hans Jorristma,was instrumental in winning back the Champions Trophy title after a 14-year gap with a team which had not won anything worthwhile for the better part of a secade.That was the crowning glory after which things started deteriorating, and sadlu zaka found refuge in dis associting himself from the team.Never a quitter,perhaps he found the circumstances too weird to compromise with . In late 1998,he was once again called to do duty as manager. At that point, he was in United State ,but since his country come first and foremost,he took over the reins, and raised a new-look ream which came second in the '98 Champions Trophy at home, beat India 6-3 in the split home and away series and for the first time in a half dozen attempts won the Azlan Shah Cup .The rude shock was round the corner: at Brisbane in the '99 Champions Trophy,the team ended last after being beaten twice by England. Ironically since they won that game they would have been playing the final against Australia, the eventual champions whom they had beaten in the league .Since sacking is only one bad result away in pakistan hockey,Zaka had to bear the brunt. Content with doing things all his life the way he had wanted to, in his private life he still mourns the death of his teenage sin, Imran, in a swimming accident in 1985.Imran was developing into a fine inside right, a mirror image of his farher, when fate intervened.