India’s women of substance change power equation

The Indian women team has always been overshadowed by their male counterparts but there are lessons for the latter from the manner in which the women made their grand entry into the final for first time. They are now assured of a silver; the men had lost to Malaysia in the bronze playoff at the previous Games in Kuala Lumpur.

But this isn’t about statistics; it’s more to do with mental strength and the hunger the Indian women have shown in this tournament. They reached Manchester in a dejected frame of mind after the World Cup qualifiers and not much was expected of them. But no one counted on their indefatigable self-belief. In the pool matches, the Indians began their campaign with a 1-0 win over Canada, then lost to the Kiwis 1-3 and drew with England 1-1 and the party looked almost over.

However, in the make or break qualification game against South Africa, they came back through a golden goal after being three down. The Black Sticks, as the Kiwis are known, had beaten Indian 3-1 in the pool game but there was no sign of any pressure on the Indians in the grudge game. They beat the Kiwis on all fronts: The Indians showed better adaptability to the conditions (the temperature during the match was 13 degree C).

In 50-50 situations, the Indian players looked sharper than their opponents. They kept their cool and stayed focussed till the end, despite the ‘bad decision’ from umpire Dawn Hemming in the second half. She awarded a penalty stroke when Indian striker Pritam Siwach was tripped in the D but then astonished everyone by reversing the decision, saying India’s Jyoti Kullu, who was supposed to take the hit, was ‘delaying’. However, redemption for the Indians came through young forward Mamta Kharab, who scored the winner with just eight minutes left.

Significantly, the Indians had also changed their tactics for the crucial encounter. In the semis, the Indians played attacking hockey while on the other hand, the Kiwis were probably guilty of trying too hard to maintain their edge. The Indian attack penetrated mainly from the centre, a sign of being fearless despite the past record. On the contrary, in the pool match, India had taken the lead but were kept on a tight leash throughout.

If India’s win should set off some alarm bells among Koreans ahead of the Asian Games, the fall of the ‘Hockeyroos’ is certain to change equations at the top. Hockey fans had became so used to seeing the Hockeyroos win during the latter years of arguably Australia’s most successful sports coach, Ric Charlesworth, that anything less than a gold medal at Manchester would be greeted with disbelief.

But new coach David Bell had warned their supporter before the tournament that this was not the same team and the new combination needed at least 18 months together to show the same results. Their all-conquering team of 2000 was declared as the most successful Australian team as they had won virtually every major title in the game, including Olympic Games, World Cup, Champions Trophy and Commonwealth Games. But recently, a lot of new players had walked into the team and disaster struck them on eve of the Games when they lost their top strikers, captain Katrina Powell and Julie Towers to injury.

Obviously, it put the new combination under tremendous pressure and explains to some extent their wavering display, which includes a league win over Malaysia 18-0. Presently ranked three in the world, the Hockeyroos had also lost a two-game warm up series to The Netherlands.