Rani was dropped, allegedly due to her poor attitude and performance. It was also alleged that she abandoned the national camp midway to get engaged, although she refuted it.
Former India women's hockey Olympian Eliza Nelson called for professional counselling sessions for the Indian hockey players in the wake of Ritu Rani being axed from the women's team after leading it to Olympics qualification after a 36-year gap.
Nelson, a member of the 1980 Moscow Games team, said here on Friday: "There should have been proper counselling for the team. You have a large support staff. It is sad that Ritu has not been selected. I spoke with a few Indian players including captain Sushila Chanu recently and they said that Ritu will be missed. Ritu was a bit distracted. But one has to sacrifice a lot to represent India.
"Before the 1980 Olympics, we had a camp in Pune and my husband was not allowed to meet me. Ritu should have focussed on representing India. Not having Ritu in Rio will be a drawback to the women's team," she added.
Rani was dropped, allegedly due to her poor attitude and performance. It was also alleged that she abandoned the national camp midway to get engaged, although she refuted it.
Nelson was thrilled at the women's team qualifying for the Olympics for the first time after her team participated in 1980 Moscow Games.
"Today, the women's team have so much of exposure. That was not the case in our time. We had an international tournament in 1975. The next tournament was the 1978 World Cup. Today, they play with a lot of countries that they will be up against in Rio," Nelson said.
She hoped that the women's team wins matches in Rio. "The team has improved physically and mentally. But, they are a little shy to score goals. The foreign coach (Neil Hagwood) is changing this. They have a lot of exposure trips. We send our main team for all the tournaments. It has been the same team for the last couple of years. Other countries send their main team only for major tournaments and send their reserve strengths to smaller tournaments," she said.
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