Indian women’s hockey, under-performing for considerable time and underrated even longer, thought to be subdued and submerged by their male counterparts, seems to have broken from the shackles.
Now, they are in the forefront, talked about. After all, they have qualified for the Olympics second time on the trot and have raised hopes for an Olympic medal this time around.
The women’s team evokes optimism, the scale of which is certainly unprecedented.
The beginning of the year saw the country turning its head towards a young Mizoram girl called Lalremsiami. She had just won India’s first ever FIH Rising Player of the Year Award.
The 20-year old, the youngest in the senior National team, is the lone Indian women’s hockey player to draw the FIH’s acclaim.
Shortly later, the senior most in the team, Rani Rampal, became first-ever world hockey player to win the prestigious World Games Athlete of the Year Award.
With an impressive 199,477 votes, Rani emerged gloriously in a poll drawing sports fans all over the world who voted for their favourite over three weeks in January.
Around the same time, the Government of India announced her nomination for the top third civil award, the Padmashree.
It made Rani only the fourth women’s hockey player in the annals to be so honoured.
Since the awards included sports in 1957, only Eliza Nelson, Selma D’Silva and Saba Anjum have got the honour in the distaff side of Indian hockey.
Three awards in three years – the Arjuna, Padmashree and Khel Ratna — to Rani Rampal does not just reflect the heights she scaled but also how the profile of women’s hockey has undergone a massive change.
In fact, women’s hockey’s image was subsumed in three areas in comparison with men’s — the World Cup, Olympics and Asian Games.
Let me, for instance, quote what transpired in 1998.
Pritam Rani’s team entered the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games final after 16 years. They went down to the mighty Koreans, the then world No. 3, by the odd goal in five.
Yet, their emergence was lost in the glory the men’s team attained at the same Games. A gold medal after 32 years led to euphoria that put the gallant women’s silver medal in the shade.
Not being in the Olympics and not making a mark at World Cup largely dented the Indian women’s profile while the men made news in these quadrennial events.
Jakarta 2018 seemed to have changed the scene.
The women’s entry into the final of the Asian Games largely offset the gloom that pervaded the Indian camp after the surrender to Malaysia in the semifinals.
That Rani Rampal, women’s captain and not PR Sreejesh, the men’s captain, was chosen to lead the Indian contingent at the closing ceremony conveyed the unmistakable image transition.
If there was any doubt, a year later the girls proved why they are so highly rated these days.
At the Bhubaneswar Olympic Qualifying Series, they outplayed the challengers the USA in the first encounter and then fought gallantly to save the day in the second leg.
The way they played the second half and the fashion with which the senior most in the team and captain Rani Rampal struck the goal that clinched an Olympic berth indicated the miles the girls have covered in their journey.
That the present team has as many as six players whose international career runs into a decade, each one battle hardened and looking to go further.
It’s a rare kind of continuity and experience that makes the women’s team a hot property for the coming Olympics.
There is a realization in top circles, say the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Indian Olympic Association, Hockey India and the general public that the future of Indian hockey lies with the women’s team.
The series of awards that Rani has received, the Arjuna that Deepika Thakur was conferred and at least half a dozen impending are a reflection of the growing profile of the women’s game.
Indian women’s hockey is on front foot and exerting a full-court press!