Led by Ahmedabad star, India’s hockey girls rebel for rights

Ahmedabad: The goalkeeper of the Indian women’s hockey team, Deepika Murty, is unhappy with the way the Hockey Federation treats women players of the country.

The Amdavadi girl led the silent protest by women players — they wore black badges among other things — at the national camp in Bhopal last month. She was in the city at the Loyola hockey ground on Saturday evening for the get-together of Loyola Gymkhana hockey players.

She had, therefore, reason to smile during the interview with DNA at the Loyola hockey ground. She had been successful in making her point and in getting fair treatment for her team-mates. Their protest was the first of its kind.

“I am happy that people have started recognising us as players after the protest,” Murty said. “I am not an aggressive person. In fact, when I returned to my room after all those interviews, I couldn’t believe myself.” The 29-year-old, who is known
to help her team-mates financially from time to time, said that being a senior member of the team, she felt she had to defend her colleagues. “I had to raise a voice for them,” she said.

Talking about the Loyola hockey ground her mother, Sukumari Murty, said it was like a second home for Deepika. “It is very close to her heart,” she said. Deepika’s first visit to the ground was way back in 1991 when she was just 11. She had accompanied a friend to find out about the game. “You know, when I saw the ground and the players here, I instantly fell in love with hockey,” Deepika said. “I was captivated by the atmosphere.”

At around the same time, Deepika had lost her father to whom she was very close. To help her get over her father’s death, her mother insisted that Deepika join a sports clinic. “Hockey was the best bet,” Deepika said. She never had much ambition for herself as a player. She voluntarily chose goalkeeping, a job that gets you more brickbats than bouquets.

“Padding up and standing under the goalpost in front of the firing line is what I liked,” Deepika said. “I love challenges.” She is so attached to the sport and the Loyola Hockey ground that if she misses a practice session she feels as if she has had a bad day in office.

“For practice, I used to avoid parties and picnics,” she said. “My teachers scolded me but I couldn’t resist going to practice.”The only woman international hockey player to have emerged from Ahmedabad, Deepika is a stickler for punctuality and hard work. Even on Saturday evening when she was at the Loyola ground for the Loyola Gymkhana hockey players’ get-together, she could not help phoning her juniors to be in the field on time for the scheduled exhibition match.