The last time Rehan Butt came to Chennai with the Pakistan team was also the last international hockey competition in the city. Back then, he was captain of the side and still among the deadliest forwards in the game with the biggest Indian obstacle in his way being a defender called Dilip Tirkey.
Now coach with a largely inexperienced side here, Butt’s memories of that 2007 tour are underlined by ‘Chak De! India’. “The movie had just been released back then and we saw it during the Asia Cup. That is still the central point of my memories even now whenever my kids ask me about it. Watching it in a cinema hall was an incredible experience,” Butt told The Hindu here.
The images are still vivid for Butt. “When I went to the ground this morning, the first thing I noticed was the lights set-up which is very different and that kind of threw me back into flashback. The city has changed a lot — earlier, it was an old city, like areas of Lahore or Delhi. Now it’s a lot more modern, cleaner and brighter. But the people are the same, our welcome was the same,” he reminisced.
