Nabi Chowdhury

Nabi Chowdhury

Nabi Chowdhury in 1981
Personal information
Full name	Nurunnabi Chowdhury
Date of birth	1934
Place of birth	Feni, Noakhali District, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Bangladesh)
Date of death	January 2003 (aged 68–69)
Place of death	Dhaka, Bangladesh
Position(s)	Center-half right half
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1952–1953	Pakistan Air Force
1954–1957	Dhaka Wanderers
1958	PWD SC
1958	Mohammedan SC
1959–1968	Police AC
International career
1957–1961	East Pakistan
1954–1958	Pakistan
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nurunnabi Chowdhury (Bengali: নুরুন্নবী চৌধুরী; 1934 – January 2003), better known as Nabi Chowdhury, was a former Bangladeshi football player and the first East Pakistani or Bengali to captain the Pakistan national football team.

Early life

Nabi Chowdhury was born in Aziz Fazilpur village in the Feni sub-division of Noakhali District, Bengal.

Club career

Nabi began his career in inter-school football, representing Comilla Victoria College while simultaneously playing in the Cumilla Football League with Pak United. In 1952, he joined the Pakistan Air Force and, under the recommendation of veteran striker Moideen Kutty, represented Pakistan Air Force FC in the Inter-Service Championship until 1954.

He earned recognition while playing for Dhaka Wanderers from 1954 to 1956, winning a hat-trick of First Division titles during his tenure there. In 1958, he represented Mohammedan SC in the IFA Shield in Calcutta, India. In the same year, he captained PWD Sports Club in the inaugural edition of the Aga Khan Gold Cup held in Dhaka.

In 1958, he left his duties at the Pakistan Air Force and, the following year, joined the East Pakistan Police, representing its football team until his retirement in 1968.

International career

East Pakistan

In 1957, Nabi participated in the National Football Championship held in Dhaka as a member of the eventual runners-up, East Pakistan Whites. He played as a center-half, alongside fullbacks Amir Jang Ghaznavi and Eugene Gomes. He scored in the first round against Pakistan Navy FC in a 5–2 victory on 22 October, during which Ashraf Chowdhury scored a hat-trick. In the final against Punjab, held in Dhaka Stadium on 10 November, Nabi was forced to leave the field for five minutes after sustaining a nose injury, during which time his team conceded a goal and would eventually go on to lose the game 1–2.

In the 1958 edition of the National Championship held in Multan, Nabi captained East Pakistan, as his team exited the tournament in the quarter-final, falling 1–3 to Punjab Reds, the junior string of the team they had faced in the previous year's final. On 16 October 1959, Nabi represented East Pakistan during an exhibition match in Gujranwala against the local Al Hilal Club, scoring the winner in a 2–1 victory from a direct corner after Shah Alam scored the first for East Pakistan.

Nabi remained part of the East Pakistan team during the 1959 National Championship held in Hyderabad, where his team again finished runners-up, losing to 0–1 to Baluchistan in the final held on 7 November 1959. Eventually, in the following edition held in Karachi, he was part of the East Pakistan team that won its maiden National Championship, defeating Karachi White 1–0 in the final held on 27 November 1960.

Following 1960, when the EP Sports Federation began sending divisional teams to the National Championship, Nabi started representing the Chittagong Division. In January 1961, he represented East Pakistan in two exhibition matches against the touring Burma national team in Dhaka and Chittagong.

Pakistan

Nabi (second from left in the front row) with the Pakistan and Malaya national teams for the 1958 Asian Games pictured with Tunku Abdul Rahman prior to the tournament

Nabi made his debut for the Pakistan national team in a friendly against Singapore in Kallang, which ended in a 2–2 draw. He subsequently represented the team at the 1954 Manila Asian Games.

He later participated in both the 1954 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament and 1955 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament, with the latter held on home soil, in Dacca, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In 1956, he toured Singapore, China and Ceylon with the national team. Nabi captained Pakistan at the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games, the first Bengali to do so. The team, including six Bengali players, tied the first game 1–1 with South Vietnam and lost its final game 1–3 to the Republic of China. Prior to the tournament, he captained the team during exhibition matches against the likes of Malaya and Singapore.

Organizing career

Nabi served as the chairman of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) national team selection committee from 1973 to 1974 and as the general secretary in 1979. He was a member for four terms, specifically in 1975, 1977, 1982, and 1992–1993. Nabi played an integral role in selecting the first Bangladesh national football team alongside Sheikh Shaheb Ali, Manzur Hasan Mintu, and Ranjit Das for the 1973 Merdeka Cup. He served as the team manager of the Bangladesh U20 team under Werner Bickelhaupt at the 1978 AFC Youth Championship in Dhaka.

Death

Nabi died of diabetes-related complications in January 2004.

Honours

Dhaka Wanderers

• Dhaka First Division League: 1954, 1955, 1956
• Pakistan Day Football Tournament: 1955
• Independence Day Cup: 1956

East Pakistan White

• National Championship runner-up: 1957

East Pakistan

• National Championship: 1960; runner-up: 1959

Pakistan

• Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament runner-up: 1955

Individual

• National Sports Award of Bangladesh: 1978

See also

• List of Pakistan national football team captains

External links

• Nabi Chowdhury at SonaliOtitClub.com