Narinder Batra started by greeting Rani Rampal.
Narinder Batra started by greeting Rani Rampal: In the neighborhood, fifteen thousand spectators came out to see us play. Narinder Batra is one such person.
In a two-game, winner-take-all Olympic qualifying series, the United States of America was our opponent. These 120 minutes, spread across two evenings, were the culmination of all our efforts and sacrifices, our greatest moments of delight and our deepest moments of misery.
Dressed in his normal kurta-pajama and jacket, Batra strolled up to us on the pitch minutes before the opening of the most crucial game of our lives and wished us luck. Batra began greeting Rani, but things quickly became awkward as he realized he didn’t recognize any other players.
He questioned, “Who is the drag-flicker?” completely oblivious to the fact that Gurjit, one of the best in the world, was only a few yards away.
He was at a loss for words, so he grinned, turned around, and headed back to the presidential suite in the very best section of the stadium. He’d be able to look down on us once more from the comfort of his air-conditioned bedroom.
Statements
Uncomfortable as it was, it couldn’t have come at a worse time than right before a crucial game. While I’m sure Batra didn’t intend to help me, he did. The enthusiasm he sparked in the group was exactly what I needed.
Batra’s attitude reflected a societal problem in India: a lack of interest in women’s hockey. In a sad twist of fate, we found ourselves to be strangers in our own land.
Envision this. In 2008, when she was just 14 years old, Rani made her India debut. She was proud to wear the captain’s armband as she approached her 250th international appearance ten years later.
The 2019 match against the USA was only her second high-stakes match ever played in her home country and her first since 2012. In contrast, the rest of us had never seen anything like it before.
Other than unusual circumstances, I can’t recall of another sports team that hadn’t played in its own nation for so long.
This was especially disappointing because hockey holds a special place in India’s heart. Yet, I’d like to reiterate a previous point: hockey in this country has traditionally been a male-dominated activity.
Only men could participate in the leagues that provided the chance to earn millions of dollars, play regularly against the best teams in the world, and be coached by some of the best minds in the game.
There was a lack of awareness of women’s hockey in the country as a whole. The role of the market economy is not lost on me. Unfortunately, women’s hockey was not one of the federation’s top concerns.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not moaning here; I’m just stating the obvious. Throughout my time in the office, Hockey India has shown a lot of support for our sport. We had access to nice training and lodging facilities, our requests were usually fulfilled quickly, and their media crew made an effort to provide both teams equal coverage.
However, the status of the women’s squad was constantly brought up.
Things like Hockey India switching from bidding to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup to bidding to host the Men’s World Cup. Because I was viewed as a good coach without regard to the impact on the women’s program, or the Hockey India League, a tournament that really helped players, being reserved for the men (after holding it in 2010 and 2018).
Declarations
The tie was satisfactory to me. The other two teams we could have played were Canada and Ireland. Even though more than a year had gone, the mental hurdle of having to face Ireland in the World Cup still proved difficult to overcome. Certainly not unachievable, but certainly challenging.
We had to play them away from home in conditions that favored them since they were better than us.
But Canada was on a roll, and a victory against the United States in the 2019 Pan American Games semifinals was especially encouraging. They came away from the victory with their heads held high.
If I had to play a team to earn a spot in the Olympics, I would have picked the United States. They were ranked lower than us, which meant we could potentially host them, plus they were a struggling squad.
In the Olympic cycle from 2012-2016, the United States had some promising performances, including a fourth-place finish at the 2014 World Cup and a fifth-place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
From our vantage point, completing a full circle would include beating the United States. American presence had long been a sore spot for the Indians.
Score
In 2008, they swept India, 4-0, in Olympic qualifying matches played in Kazan, Russia. Rani, the team’s youngest member, still bore the emotional scars of that devastating loss. She could not shake the feeling that the American team was superior to hers in size and skill.
Every time the two teams clashed, the United States came out on top, most recently in a 3-0 victory in the Olympic Games in Rio.
We were confident going into this game and had a nice attitude. We huddled together and hoped for a smooth game without any serious injuries.
Gurjit approached me and extended her hockey stick, requesting a kiss. It was a very small custom that we had started. I planted a playful kiss on Gurjit’s stick at the 2019 Hockey Finals. As a result of her performance in that game, we now perform this routine before each and every game.
Even if we needed a little extra push at the end, it came from Batra’s flippant comments. Because of this, we were even more determined to show him who was the best of the two of us.
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