The year is 2007. In Haryana’s Sonepat, Arjuna awardee Pritam Siwach, a member of the 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medal winning team – the real-life Chak De India team – is coaching little girls at her academy. She sees a barefoot girl in tattered clothes, keenly watching from across the grill. After the session, she walks up to the girl. “Do you want to play hockey?” Siwach asks. The little girl nods. “What’s your name?” “Neha Goyal, ma’am,” she answers.
Fast forward to December 2022. A video of the Indian women’s hockey team dancing to music in their playing kit goes viral on social media. They have a reason to celebrate, having just beaten the hosts Spain in Valencia to win the FIH Nations Cup and qualify for the 2023-24 Pro League.
Among the dancers is a happy Neha Goyal. She is still smiling when I catch up with her a couple of days later. But a faraway look comes into her eyes as she starts talking about how it all started: “That day (in 2007), Pritam ma’am gave me a hockey (stick). She gave me clothes, shoes, and equipment. From that day she took care of my diet. She paid my school fees. She taught me hockey, helped me dream and believe that anything is possible. She gave me a new life.”
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Hockey is their life
Ten-year-old Neha had not been entirely truthful in her answer to Siwach’s question. She had only gone to meet Siwach because her friend had told her she could get free clothes and shoes at the academy.
“My mother worked as a helper in different houses and for a few hours a day my three sisters and I helped her put sheaths around cycle chains. We finished 100 chains an hour between us and she brought home Rs 1,500 a month for all the work. There was barely enough left for food and none for clothes and shoes. Hockey changed everything,” Neha recalled.
Within four years of picking up that “first hockey” stick, Neha was in the Indian National Junior Camp. The following year, in 2012, at the tender age of 15, she was part of the Indian senior hockey team. Waylaid by injuries she made a comeback in 2017. Neha has played 120 international matches since then and is now India’s premier attacking centre-half.
The stories of the rest of India’s current squad closely parallel Neha’s. Three of her India teammates – Sharmila, Jyoti, and Nisha – are in fact from Siwach’s academy. Incredibly, 14 of the 18 squad members who won the FIH Nations Cup hail from Haryana. This includes Rani Rampal and Savita Punia, who are household names today. Rani’s father was a handcart-puller. Savita’s family has humble origins too.
“We all are from poor families, sir. We play hockey not just for love of the sport, but to change the lives of our families,” Neha said, adding that every medal they win and every cash prize they get, changes their lives back home. “Hockey is life.”
In fact, the impact of the medals, tournament victories, and media exposure the team now gets goes well beyond the immediate families. It is providing inspiration for the next generation of girls to take up the sport.
“They (Neha, Sharmila, Nisha, Jyoti) park their new cars at the academy,” Siwach said. “The young girls admire the cars and discuss the exploits of their didis “respectful address for senior girls”. They all want to play for India. When India lost the Olympic semi-finals, we were all watching on TV. The young ones were inconsolable. Later, they told me – Don’t worry ma’am, we will win a medal for India at the Olympics.”
The past five years since Neha made her comeback have been transformational for the sport in India. In 2017, India won the Asia Cup after 13 years and qualified for the World Cup. In 2018, they were the Asian Games silver medalists and finished second at the Asian Champions Trophy.
In 2021, when the Olympics finally kicked off in Tokyo, at one point it seemed as if the Indian women were playing to the script of Chak De India. The team faltered in the semis. But in losing a gallant fight, they captured the imagination and love of 1.3 billion Indians.
A few months later, at the Commonwealth Games, the team won its first medal in the competition in two decades – a bronze. With that, they climbed to the 6th position in the world, the highest ranking an Indian women’s hockey team has ever achieved.
“The successes and experiences of the last few years have changed something within us,” Neha said. “Today, we believe we can beat anyone in the world. We gave our 100 per cent at every single match in Valencia. Before the final against Spain, who are ranked above us, we said we will give 110 per cent and win today. And we did.”
She added that they want to win the Asian Games and qualify for the Olympics. “Then, we want to bring back a medal for India.”
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The making of the team
A lot of the credit for the rise of Indian women in hockey goes to the investments the government has made in the sport, including the Khelo India scheme. It provides much-needed match exposure and gives cash prizes and monthly scholarships to promising players at every level.
The efforts of Hockey India are no less commendable, particularly in their appointment of the coaching staff India has had in recent years. Former Dutch international Janneke Schopman currently coaches the Indian women’s team. Her approach is like a breath of fresh air and is being embraced by the team.
First, she knocked down the language barrier. “Speak up yourself (not through the seniors) even if you know a few words of English. I will understand,” Schopman told the junior players. “Today, every single girl speaks up in meetings and is not afraid to give their ideas or ask questions,” Neha said.
During a tournament, Schopman stays up late in the night before each game, analysing each opposition player and noting her own players’ moves from the previous match. In the morning, she tells each player her role and the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition players. She spends a lot of time with players working on their defense and penalty corners, a crucial element of the modern game.
Finally, she has ingrained in each player the importance of breathing exercises before each game to calm their minds and focus on the present.
The results are beginning to show.
But equally, the credit for the positive trajectory of the team goes to the work being done at the grassroots level by people who often remain unheralded.
Haryana has long been the fertile garden that produces the most number of women hockey players for India.
At the forefront, against all odds, is Siwach’s academy, which, even after almost two decades, is funded by her husband Kuldeep Siwach (also a former player) and herself from their meagre resources. The fact that she has just been awarded the Dronacharya Award is a reflection of how much her contribution is valued. But the academy still lacks an AstroTurf field. “It costs Rs 3-4 crore sir, and no sponsor has come up to pick up the tab despite the many Indian players my husband and I continue to produce year after year,” Siwach tells me wistfully.
There is a Rani Rampal, a Savita Punia, and a Neha Goyal waiting to be discovered in every village where hockey is played around the country. Ringing in their ears is coach Kabir Khan’s iconic Chak De India dialogue: Jao aur yeh sattar minute jee bharkar khel lo “Go and play these 70 minutes to your heart’s content.” All they need is an opportunity.
Today, women’s hockey in India is in a better space than it’s ever been. A podium finish at Paris in 2024 is well within the realms of possibility. If that happens, it would herald the beginning of what may well be its “Golden Age.”
Anindya Dutta @Cric_Writer is a sports columnist and author of Wizards: The Story of Indian Spin Bowling, and Advantage India: The Story of Indian Tennis. Views are personal.
(Edited by Tarannum Khan)