INDIAN HOCKEY’S GOLDEN GIRL ELIZA NELSON

ERROL D’CRUZ

The image of Eliza Nelson nee Mendonca chaired by jubilant teammates will never fade for those fortunate to witness the watershed moment in Indian women’s hockey.

Those scenes of unbridled joy followed Eliza captaining her country to the 1982 Asian Games women’s gold medal in front of its own fans at the jam-packed Shivaji Stadium in New Delhi, a triumph that was to change how women’s hockey was perceived in India.

Decades after those heady moments, Eliza sits back in her Pune home catapulting through time to relive the memories of that wintry day in the capital and the myriad factors that made for the triumph of the “Indian Eves” as they are known today.

“When I was given the captaincy, I wanted to change a few things immediately. First and foremost I wanted to do away with the junior-senior divide that plagued the dressing room,” Eliza reveals.

“At the 1978 Madrid World Cup, it was the seniors who ruled the roost. They were given charge of arranging food for the squad and more often than not the best helping went to the seniors and the juniors were made to make do with leftovers. This simply had to end and I saw to it that a sense of equality prevailed in our dressing and hotel rooms.”

Madrid was an unmitigated disaster going by the record book and Eliza’s own observations of shoddiness in organization, management and training. “We had little or no idea of the artificial turf we were to play on and nor did the management, it appeared. We played wearing boots with studs that came off after the first match itself. In the rest of the matches, we were little more than skating on the pitch!,” she elaborates.

More vexations followed. India travelled to the 1980 Moscow Olympics where women’s hockey made its debut. It ended in heartbreak with the team finishing outside the medal bracket when gold was much within reach and it brought Eliza the rarity of disappointment in a career during which she picked up five gold medals.

“Among the reasons touted for our failure was the fatigue caused by cheering our men’s team (who eventually won the gold medal). This wasn’t true at all. What was true was that we were sapped of energy by endless waiting in the hotel lobby for the team bus to arrive and at training venues for our turn to avail of pitch time – all because of inept management. It affected us badly and it all added up to our disappointing finish,” she explains.

But Eliza quickly moves from the unsavoury to countless joyous moments in her glittering career.

“I generally had a very happy career. I had no severe challenges to face to reach the top in my sport. I enjoyed the adoring support of my father Bernard and mother Josephine and had the privilege and good fortune to be spotted by Minoo Golakhari whose coaching and development of players in Pune is a who’s who in the circle of accomplished players there,” she reminisces.

“How can I forget him shouting out ‘Lizio’ at 5.30 in the morning beckoning me to rise for training! I had for company the great Otilia Mascarenhas who lived down my lane along with the iconic Samson sisters – Shirley and Annie – who joined me under Minoo Sir’s tutelage. Our promoters was the famous Kayani Club run by famous confectioners by the same name and they backed Minoo Sir in his commitment towards the game.”

Excelling in hockey was hardly a pursuit for the little Eliza who blossomed into a good sprinter at Jesus and Mary school in the heart of the city. Hockey was confined to the gully, mainly to keep sister Irene company. Golakhari, however, had an eye for talent and viewed Eliza as a promising player of the future.

“With my sprinter’s acumen, I was a natural right-winger and took the pitch at the 1972 Junior National Championship in Pune but it was at the 1973 Nationals in Goa that I really learned the nuances of the game. In time I was influenced by another Pune-based coach, Satinderpal Singh Walia, whose focus on fitness and scientific training bore the stamp of the National Institute of Sports, Patiala,” Eliza recounts.

Eliza’s big moment came in 1975 when she was selected for the India team to take part in the Begum Rasool international tournament in Chennai. She recollects the scene with great joy, saying: “We were ecstatic and wanted to give our families the news immediately. The only means was the telegram and we all made a bee-line to the telegraph office in Patiala. Besides giving my parents the big news, I also had to urgently request Rs 500 to pay for my blazer. My parents could scarcely afford the amount but Kayani Club rushed to the rescue and their generosity helped me secure a blazer!”

It was the start of a glittering career and Eliza’s and the first of five gold medals adorning her showcase was the Begum Rasool. Significantly, the four other gold medals came during her tenure as captain, having first worn the armband at the 1981 Asian Championship at Kyoto, Japan. That turned out to be a golden tour with further triumphs in a tournament in Tenri and a four-nation tournament in Singapore.

The Asian Games epoch made for a fourth gold medal and in her swansong, the 1982 Begum Rasool tournament in Pune, Eliza added a final piece of the yellow metal which meant she started and ended her career with a top podium finish.

But there’s another prize that Eliza cherishes as much. It’s an exotic kimono-clad doll that the team won for winning an exhibition match in Hagoromo before hopping over to Singapore. Years later, the doll was presented to Eliza at an Inter-Railways tournament in appreciation for her services to the national team and the Railways whom she represented till 1996.

“The doll is one of my most cherished memories of that tour of Japan,” Eliza says. 

But in the midst of the euphoria following the tour of Japan came a sudden setback. “I was told that I would be rested for the tour of the former Soviet Union. To be honest, I was disappointed and hurt. The coach (Kartar Singh) explained to my husband Darrel (a hockey player himself in Kerala) that I was being preserved for sterner battles ahead and I left it at that. My aim was a gold medal at the Delhi Asian Games and I had decided that I would quit the scene after that,” she recalls.

In the meantime, Eliza found gainful employment in the Railways. “It was a sea change from the days I represented Maharasthra,” she says. “Travelling, for instance, became a pleasure. No more rushing to the yard hoping to travel unreserved to tournaments. Instead, here we were in a first-class bogey with a kitchen coupe where we could cook our meals comfortably.”

Eliza gushes with praise for the Railways and with good reason. “Their contribution to women’s sport especially hockey is exemplary,” she says. In time, Eliza, who joined Western Railway in 1977, rose to the position of sports officer in Central Railway in 2001 – a job she loved despite the pressure it brought.

Back to the international scene: Eliza was duly recalled for the Asian Games preparatory camp where the legendary Balkishen Singh embarked on moulding a champion outfit.

The Asian Games was the event Eliza was passionately waiting for. True, she had already tasted success at the Begum Rasool on debut seven years earlier and the Asia Cup the previous year where the “goosebumps from standing on the top podium in a foreign land and holding the Tricolour at the opening ceremony” was a special experience. But to do so again, in front of her own people would be a dream come true.

And so it came to pass. “We trained hard and followed a strict code of discipline that saw us confined to our rooms when not training or playing. We even avoided the opening ceremony to preserve energy for the games to come,” Eliza recalls.

“I remember the concluding game (against Singapore which India won 3-0) of the round-robin league which determined the medals. The Shivaji stadium is relatively small and the stands were close to the playing area. I clearly saw our then PM Mrs Indira Gandhi and her family members that included her son Rajiv and his wife Sonia in the stands”.

The Arjuna Award came her way in 1982 and the Padma Shri a year later. “I heard that Mrs Gandhi put in a word for me when it came to the Padma Shri award,” she reveals and she remembers the majestic settings of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the scene of the awards.

Eliza’s contribution to the game continued after retirement from the international scene as she turned out for the employers Indian Railways. She brought her vast experience to the fore as a technical committee member at various international tournaments including the 2003 Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad and the Asia Cup in New Delhi the following year.

Born into a Goan family and one of five siblings – brothers Augustine and Felix and sisters Irene and Salome – Eliza has two daughters Andrea, a director of a pharma firm in the US, and Rebecca, a fashion designer in Mumbai.

A contended grandma, she lives her golden years quietly with husband Darrel in Pune, her city of birth and one that could once be likened to Shahabad, the town in Haryana that has produced icons such as current captain Rani Rampal — one of many spawned by the epoch that Eliza and her team scripted almost four decades ago.