Sister Act

Everyone can remember the images. The squeals of delight. Throwing captain and coach up in the air. Joining hands in a semi-circle for a mom...

Everyone can remember the images. The squeals of delight. Throwing captain and coach up in the air. Joining hands in a semi-circle for a moment of contemplation. Then, gold around their necks, singing the national anthem with a refreshing innocence you8217;d thought had vanished from sport. The powerful image of One.

For all that, you8217;d assume it8217;s easy to be a woman hockey player in India. Anything but. In the ranking of sports in India, cricket occupies the first 10 slots; all other men8217;s sports come next. Whatever space left on the podium is for women8217;s sports, jostling and jockeying for their inch of space. Hockey, despite the right credentials 8212; Asian Games gold in 1982, silver in 1998, Asia Cup silver in 1999, now the Commonwealth gold 8212; is a punctuation mark.

Forget cricket, This is
India8217;s latest dream team

This is a team without stars, right? Right, but if it had to have stars it would be these five, who together sum up all that8217;s best about their team: spunky, funky and oozing flair. Presenting the Spice Girls of Indian hockey

baby	Mamta Kharab

Her short hair and boyish looks make this Rohtak girl seem even younger than her 17 years. She8217;s got hockey in her veins 8212; her sisters also play for Chandigarh 8212; and shot into the limelight at the National Games in Bangalore, 1997 where they won the bronze. But when she started off, there were few facilities to play with; 8216;8216;I didn8217;t have my own hockey stick for at least one year8217;8217;, she says. The early promise was not just a flash in the pan and, despite her inexperience, Mamata not only handled the pressure well at Manchester but struck the winning goal to clinch the title for India. Mamata8217;s short height could have been a handicap against the tall, strong European defenders but her deftness, sleight of foot and keen anticipation stood her in good stead. Her eye for ball movement and knack of sniffing out a rebound made her a terror in the rival D 8212; and earned her the nickname chipkalli lizard.

ginger

Suraj Lata Devi

Captain and workhorse. Her first major assignment as skipper and she struck gold. Another sporting family though her father is an accountant with the Manipur government. Got her break when she was selected to join the SAI hostel in Imphal; slowly, steadily, she made her way to the national camp. She started out as a centre-forward but has shown equal potential in the midfield. Highly regarded by her teammates, Suraj can cover a lot of ground in the defence and is a clean tackler. Now working with Western Railways in Mumbai, she can look forward to a promotion. 8216;8216;We8217;ve worked hard for the last 10 years and the results have finally come. I8217;m happy that acknowledgement is finally coming to us8217;8217;, she says.

posh, of course

Pritam Siwach

She8217;s called the Dhanraj Pillay of Indian women8217;s hockey but she8217;s more like the David Beckham. Pritam 8212; who is 29 and has a two-year-old son, would you believe it? 8212; is a hugely effective forward who uses devastating bursts of speed to outwit the most formidable defenders. The centre-forward from Jharsa in Gurgaon made her debut way back in 1988. But a rift with the federation saw her missing the Olympic qualifiers in 2000. The authorities were forced to recall her, however, and her class and talent showed at the Commonwealth Games when the team was under pressure. A perfect team player, Pritam was instrumental in winning those vital penalty corners during the Games. After 14 years at international level, she8217;s now looking forward to spending time with her husband and son. 8216;8216;There was no time to pursue any hobby before; all I want after retirement is to cook for my family and stay at home8217;8217;, says the ace striker. She will be missed.

scary

Sita Gossain

Okay, somebody had to be Scary. So why not Gossain, the team8217;s seniormost player and sheet-anchor? Scary for the opposition in her role as midfield marshal. Scary for England, against whom she scored in the final through a penalty corner from the top of the 8216;D8217;. Gossain, from Nahan in Himachal, is the team8217;s backbone, the springboard for attacking moves and the one tracking back to defend she came up with three goal-line saves during the final. And the only Asian player to be selected for the World XI when they played Australia8217;s Hockeyroos during the FIH8217;s platinum jubilee celebrations.

sporty

Jyoti Kullu

Raw talent slowly being honed into perfection. The 22-year-old Adivasi from Orissa, who scored the golden goal against South Africa, is a rarity among her breed. Most tribals turn out to be good defenders, few play up front. But Jyoti has shown, time and again, that she8217;s got what it takes. In the team8217;s scheme of things, Kullu and Pritam were the main attackers in the Games; for the final, though, Kullu was played as a withdrawn forward. She was also the highest scorer for India with four goals.
8212; Manish Kumar

Add to that the baggage that comes with with being a professional woman 8212; and a sportswoman to boot 8212; in tribal/rural/small town India where most of these players come from and you have an inkling of what they8217;re up against. After all, even when you8217;ve seen the images all of last weekend, would you recognise the captain if you saw her on the street?

The trick, as these 16 girls and their colleagues have perfected, is to take the rough with the smooth, throw in a large helping of good humour and believe in each other. That8217;s what they did; that8217;s what got them the gold.

It8217;s an attitude best summed up by Kaanti Baa, the team8217;s young defender. She comes from Simdega district, Jharkhand, and has to walk two hours through dense forest to reach the nearest bus stop. 8216;8216;Struggle to karna hi tha, nahi to yaha tak kaise aate8217;8217;, she says, with a smile and without any trace of irony or bitterness.

Signs of hardship are written all over the tiny room in Delhi8217;s National Stadium that serves as the office of the Indian Women8217;s Hockey Federation. The room is tucked away in a corner of the stadium complex; you8217;d probably miss it if you weren8217;t looking for it. On the way you pass the suites occupied by the big boys, including the Indian Hockey Federation; all of them look out onto the field.

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The IWHF office doesn8217;t; it8217;s a jumble of papers, the odd trophy, a computer and a fax machine, manned 8212; if that is indeed the word 8212; by an all-woman staff of three. Their task is to co-ordinate with 31 units and approximately 3100 registered players. Only two of the three are paid staff but, as secretary Amrit Bose puts it, it8217;s 8216;8216;a project of the women, for the women and by the women8217;8217; That8217;s why, she adds wryly, 8216;8216;despite the resource crunch, we can run the show economically and effectively8217;8217;.

Maybe they don8217;t complain because living in the shadow of their male counterparts is second nature.

But the hardships are real enough. The team8217;s official kit supplier withdrew their support last year, leaving the players without astro-turf shoes or proper kits for the Commonwealth Games.

While the men8217;s team is sponsored by Castrol, the women have found no solid backer. Again, the IWHF was offered Rs 2.5 lakh by Doordarshan for the telecast of the finals of national-level tournaments; the men8217;s team gets Rs 6 lakhs per match.

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The federation8217;s annual budget 8212; around Rs 2 lakh, raised from donations, capitation fees and the support of the Railways 8212; is scarcely sufficient to host tournaments, purchase hockey sticks and kits and send the team abroad. It8217;s even forced a cutback on national tournaments at all levels. The Nationals have been held only twice in the past three years due to lack of sponsorship.

Obviously, this filters down to the players too. They still use wooden sticks, when all other top teams use metal. The players themselves are quite blase about it. 8216;8216;I have never played with metal sticks, so I don8217;t know the difference from wooden stick8217;8217;, says Sanggai Chanu, the team8217;s right-out from Bashikong, a village on the outskirts of Imphal.

Chanu8217;s just one of the many from Manipur and Jharkhand, states that rarely exist in our consciousness. There were obvious social and cultural differences which could have made for awkward and embarrassing situations. Says Suraj Lata Devi, the team captain from Manipur, 8216;8216;My first time at the national camp was a shocking experience 8212; I didn8217;t speak Hindi, had never seen a train. But then I realised it was the same with so many other girls. Staying away from our families, we developed strong bonds with each other.8217;8217;

The federation also helped in the adjustment process. 8216;8216;Four years ago, when we went on a tour to Russia, the IWHF president made the players sit next to her at official dinners so that they wouldn8217;t feel uncomfortable or ignored8217;8217;, says Bose. The gesture was not lost on the players. Says Suraj Lata, 8216;8216;Everyone was charged up for this tournament because we had failed to qualify for the World Cup. We were prepared to overcome everything, including poor umpiring, to win.8217;8217;

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She knows about hurdles and overcoming them. Born into a family of six siblings, she credits her mother with backing her enthusiasm. Hockey is immensely popular in Manipur but facilities are poor; players had to share hockey sticks just get a game. Perhaps the practice of rolling substitutions took root here: 8216;8216;There were so many of us waiting to play and too few sticks available. So each one of us played by turns and stayed on the field for only 10-15 minutes. It gave everyone a chance.8217;8217;

At least they play hockey in Manipur. They don8217;t in Durg, which is where Saba Anjum, the baby of the team, comes from. She had another handicap: Her Muslim background. 8216;8216;Many people had objected to my playing hockey, only my brothers supported me8217;8217;, she says, the pride at vindicating them obvious in her voice.

Some problems are, of course, unique to women8217;s sport. Motherhood, and the pressures of family life. Agile goalkeeper Thingolomei Chanu is one of two married members in the team. Her teammates call her moody but that may just be the result of balancing the personal and professional, especially given the large amount of travel involved. 8216;8216;I8217;8217;ve told my husband not to get in my way as long as I8217;m playing8217;8217;, she says gruffly, but with a twinkle in her eye.

Pritam Rani Siwach, the team8217;s main striker, returned to the side team after her son was born in 2000. A member of the silver-winning team at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, her top-level career seemed over with parenthood. But her will to compete was fierce; she wanted to win a gold, and trained doubly hard to get back into shape. 8216;8216;I8217;d put on a lot of weight after childbirth and it required strenuous work-outs8217;8217;, she says. 8216;8216;But it was definitely worth it.8217;8217;

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Or take the equally commonplace scenario of small town girl in Big City. Mamata Kharab, the team8217;s 8216;golden girl8217; 8212; she scored the golden goal in the final 8212; is a single teen in Mumbai. That8217;s big news when you come from Rohtak but she prefers to see the brighter side. 8216;8216;Life is tough on a meagre Rs 7,000 she works with Western Railways but it comes with a lot of good experiences8217;8217;. Hockey, she says, is a great source of comfort; 8216;8216;playing a team game gave me a feeling of staying with a family, and the coaches treat us like their own children.8217;8217;

Today, these girls know they8217;re in the public eye; they8217;ve been rewarded for their heroics in Manchester, for some time the going will be good. Then they8217;ll go back to being faceless, nameless, non-stars.

There8217;ll be no tantrums, no heartbreaks; they8217;ve been there, done that. All they want is to play the game their way: All for One.