The left-back shackled attackers with minimum of fuss, steering them aside like a nightclub doorman.
He was a clean player by nature, and his nerve under siege was awe-inspiring.
His potent penalty corner strikes left opponents rattled.
Sri Shan’s defensive heroics and goal-scoring ability were shaped by defiance as much as ambition.
The son of postman Naganathy, from Klang, was determined to be the rock of dependability.
He ultimately triumphed after having received hostile treatment from a certain official in his early playing days.
Sri Shan said if not for Malaysia’s “father of hockey”, the late Sultan Azlan Shah, he would not have played international hockey.
“I would perhaps have played cricket for the national team,” said the legend, who captained the Selangor combined schools cricket team at 14.
His transformation from striker to full-back was accidental, but his fighting spirit wasn’t.
Intriguingly, Sri Shan, whose parents were from Sri Lanka, only became a Malaysian citizen just before he made his debut in the Olympics in 1968.
From then on, he became a monumental presence and character in the national teams at three Olympics and three world cups.
Sri Shan was captain of the 1975 World Cup team that erased the past and spelt the future of hockey in the country.
That squad restored emotions we thought had been lost from the game for good. Faith, optimism, romance.
They richly contributed to nation-building and that’s also why the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur 50 years ago is an event you will want to tell your grandchildren about.
For him, the ’75 World Cup represented the value of representing the country. “The image of the country was at stake.”
“We thought about the people, and what it did to them depended on how we performed,” said Sri Shan, 78.
Not even he could have imagined that his time on the big stage in ‘75 would have overpoweringly moving moments.
Moments that were so heady in its sense of history, so intensely charged with the emotions of a nation.
Like when he scored the winning goal 56 seconds from the end of that thriller against defending champions, the Netherlands, on March 11 to enter the semi-finals.
Most things don’t happen. This one did.
Two minutes from time, Frenchman Alain Renaud blew for a short corner in Malaysia’s favour, with the match tied 1-1.
Franco D’Cruz crouched over the ball like a prized golfer for a 12-foot putt, while Sri Shan settled for the mightiest hit of all-time.
Sri Shan said D’Cruz and Wong Choon Hin were excellent under the tense situation for the push and stop respectively.
He nudged it forward and flashed it low into the left corner of goal inches, giving no chance to the Dutch goalkeeper Derk Doyer.
Sri Shan said all those hours devoted to studying the psychology of short corners, of working out how to banish the demons and remove the random factor, had paid off.
“My training has been such that a small area is my goal, 97% of the goalmouth is yours, the 3% is mine,” he added.
Asked how he celebrated his goal, he said: “I never believed in celebrating during a match. I had to run back to my position to ensure they didn’t get the equaliser.”
But the crowd that had burst into an almighty roar had other ideas.
As he was running back, fans stopped him on the half-line, with some lifting him up in joy.
“One of them took my stick and ran away, and I had to get it back from him,” chuckled Sri Shan.
The 28-year-old police inspector, who in his early playing days was taunted by a Selangor team manager as “only fit to wear an estate jersey”, became a hero.
Malaysian life was beyond sweet for 72 hours until the next match against India in the last four.
The goal against the Dutch was Sri Shan’s second in the tournament, and he would net another three days later against the Indians.
He had also scored three penalty corner goals each in the ’73 World Cup in Amsterdam and in Buenos Aires in 1978.
The hardman
A thunderbolt from India’s Surjit Singh injured Sri Shan’s finger in the closing stages of the semi-final.
His finger was split. Panic in the Merdeka Stadium as Malaysia were leading 2-1 through goals from Poon Fook Loke and Sri Shan.
Sri Shan said he carried on playing after the bandage was applied on his crushed finger because there was no replacement full-back.
The injured right-back A Francis had earlier been replaced by Brian Sta Maria.
India won 3-2 in extra-time and went on to edge Pakistan and snatch the title.
Despite the injury, Sri Shan played in a jaded side that lost 4-0 to West Germany the following day.
Sri Shan recalled that in the ’73 World Cup the ball struck his head during a short corner taken by a Dutch player.
After receiving treatment, he bravely continued playing, earning praise for his warrior spirit.
How the ’75 squad was built
After Malaysia won the bronze medal in the ’74 Teheran Asian Games, Azlan Shah asked Sri Shan to lead the ’75 World Cup team.
Goalkeeper Khairuddin Zainal was the leader of the team to the Asiad but Azlan Shah, the chief selector, wanted a change.
Sri Shan had resigned as skipper after Malaysia performed disastrously in the ’73 World Cup, finishing second last.
On the flight home, Azlan Shah asked what it would take for Sri Shan to accept the captaincy.
Sri Shan said he suggested Ho Koh Chye as head coach, and call-ups for D’Cruz from Australia, Francis from Germany and Fook Loke from London.
He also requested for S Balasingam, Phang Poh Meng and Harnahal Singh, all from the ’72 Munich Olympics side, to be brought out of retirement.
Sri Shan said to his astonishment, Azlan Shah agreed. “That was how we had a formidable Malaysian side for the World Cup. Only Harnahal turned down the invitation.”
The World Cup in Kuala Lumpur was the last time elite hockey was played on grass.
Artificial surface was used for the first time at the Montreal Olympics in the following year.
Sri Shan led the Malaysian team to the Olympics that played on artificial pitch for the first time, during training in England, only 48 days before the Games.
Malaysia, with several new players coached by Mohamed Sidek Othman, finished eighth among 11 nations.
Made for the biggest occasions
The Klang High School alumnus never imagined himself as a hockey full-back.
He started as a left-inside for Klang district, but fate had other plans.
Sri Shan said he was thrust into defence by chance by Selangor coach Chua Eng Cheng during trials for the Razak Cup in 1967.
“I didn’t know what to do. I never played left back in my life.
“I did stretch tackles and the coach was shocked that the forwards were not going through,” he recollected.
Soon, he was in the ’68 Olympics team, but not before misery struck the likely choice, Tara Singh, from Negeri Sembilan.
Tara fractured his ankle in a match two days before the final selection for the Lahore Invitational in preparation for Mexico.
Sri Shan went on to transform himself into a great player through, as former German hockey legend Horst Wein described, “practical application of a superior hockey brain.”
He first became Malaysia’s skipper at the age of 23 when he led the team in the ’70 Asian Games in Bangkok, where Malaysia finished fourth.
After he retired from international hockey, he joined United Asian Bank as a security manager and started a hockey team.
Sri Shan, who also served as an officer with the National Bureau of Investigation (now MACC), then formed the Federal Territory Hockey Association.
He was also coach of the national team for a year from 1987 and had a stint with Selangor as well.
Journalist R Nadeswaran, who covered the ’75 World Cup said: “Sri Shan was made for the biggest occasions. The more extreme the challenge, the more commanding he was.”