In its 31st edition, the Olympics comes to the South American continent for the first time. In Rio, Brazil, it will also be the first time the Indian women’s hockey team will be marching out at the quadrennial games since their maiden outing at the invitational tournament in 1980, the year it was introduced in the Olympics. This time, the girls will walk with their heads held high, having qualified on merit. They have earned their place in the biggest sporting arena.

The members of that 1980 team may not be well-known to most people today. Even those who follow the game closely would struggle to identify them. Eliza Nelson is close to retirement while Prem Maya will do so in 2018. Sudha Chaudhary has a 26-year-old son. In the current side, only two of the 16 players are older than Chaudhary’s son. But that side was a trendsetter in more ways than one.

“We never thought it would be 36 years before another Indian women’s hockey team qualified for Olympics. Two generations have passed without realising this dream,” says a wistful Maya.

That jinx has finally been broken by a side that has punched above its weight. For a team ranked 13th in the world, it is an achievement in itself to compete in a competition meant for the top 12. But make no mistake, this group of girls is not going to simply make up the numbers. The team is focused on finishing among the top four in its group and qualifying for the quarter-finals. That, though, is only the first step.

Rani Rampal, one of the most experienced players in the side — at the age of 21 — says, “we are not going there as tourists. Our first target is to win at least two matches in the league stage and reach the quarters.” India has been placed in Pool B along with Argentina, Australia, Japan, the US and Britain. Its first encounter is against fellow Asian qualifier Japan and the game may well set the template for the team’s campaign.

Going by recent records, India would be keen to target the US and Japan while doing its best against the other teams that are far ahead at the moment. The team is confident of putting one past multiple-gold medal winner Australia, despite the gulf in their world rankings. “We have seen Australia play, we have played against them recently. If we continue to play our natural game, it is not impossible to defeat them,” Rampal says confidently.

The road to redemption

While some may call it over-confidence, there is no doubt that this team has self-belief. Something that must be credited to chief coach Neil Hawgood — ironically, from Australia. Hawgood had taken charge of the team in 2012, when it was in turmoil following the retirement of several senior players after the sex scandal that hit the team in 2008-09. More than the skills, it is his success with creating a team of strong, positive girls that needs to be appreciated.

Not that Hawgood’s arrival resulted in a sudden surge of victories. But the gradual development was clearly visible. Even though the man in charge during the final qualification step for Rio was Mathias Ahrens, Hawgood’s stamp was all over the team and its style of play. His return in late 2015 — after a brief stint with the Malaysian men’s side — was one of the best things to happen to the Indian women’s team. Though Hawgood returned as an advisor to Ahrens, he soon replaced the latter as coach.

Hawgood is a rare coach in Indian sports, liked by his entire team for the positivity he brings. He has always backed his girls all the way, which is why everyone was shocked when he decided to drop long-time captain Ritu Rani from Rio team over poor attitude and form. Hawgood himself has admitted it was one of the most difficult decisions of his career, but was done to ensure team discipline.

Maya feels Rani’s exclusion may affect players who were close to her, and that she should have been included. “It’s possible Ritu made a mistake. But such a decision right before the Olympics will affect the team. There are ways to both encourage a player and punish her for intransigence. But dropping from team cannot be one of them.”

Talented forward and former captain Pritam Siwach, nicknamed Lady Dhanraj Pillay for her runs in the ’90s, is non-committal. “I am not aware of the entire issue. If it was a mild mistake, she should have been considered. But if it was a major disciplinary issue, then it should not be tolerated because indiscipline is contagious in a team.”

Now that the team has been finalised and is on the road to Rio, it is important to continue working as a unit. Goalkeeping coach Helen Mary says the team has planned well and assessed the opposition to try and reach the quarter-finals.

United we stand

One of the biggest problems for women’s hockey is the lack of exposure. Compared to the men, the women rarely get to go abroad for training. For once, that grouse also has been taken care of. From Australia to New Zealand to England and the US, the team has travelled all over, playing practice games and participating in tournaments against higher-ranked sides. This support from Hockey India, despite being aware of the team’s limited prospects, has also helped the team develop confidence.

Team unity, says Maya, can produce miracles. She cites her own team’s example. That team from 1980 is still united. How firmly can be understood from the fact that all of them are part of a WhatsApp group called ‘Olympians’. Now, Indian women’s hockey is on the cusp of producing another group of Olympians. “I tell them (the current team) how much it pains to not be an Olympian. I try to explain the importance of this tag. It is easy to ignore the ramifications when you are young but I want them to realise what they have done and what they can do,” says Mary.

Siwach has a word of caution. “Yes, to be an Olympian is great. But to only be an Olympian is a waste. Play not to become an Olympian. Play in such a way that the country is proud to call you an Olympian, respect that tag.” That is something the current team can learn from its predecessors.

This current team has a good balance of seniors and juniors. Even though Rio is the immediate target, the team management has taken care to ensure there would be at least a few players available for the 2020 Games in Tokyo as well. In that respect, the team selection also needs to be praised for its long-term vision. Players like Nikki Pradhan, Preeti Dubey and Renuka Yadav are raw but talented. On the other hand are players like defender Deepika Thakur, the most senior member of the side and one of the seven players with more than 100 international caps.

The wonder years

The ’80s were a period of transition in Indian women’s hockey. The domination of Anglo-Indians was giving way to a more inclusive team and the sport was spreading to other parts of the country — Maya is from Gorakhpur, Rupa Saini from Punjab, Chaudhary from Delhi. Synthetic surfaces were uncommon. Despite that, the team was a contender for a medal but paid the price for poor decisions.

The next few years were good, though, and the team won the 1981 Asian Championship, gold at a tournament in Toronto and a four-nation event in Singapore. The biggest win came in 1982, when the team won the Asian Games in its maiden outing at the continental competition. That achievement is yet to be repeated.

The Asiad gold was the pinnacle of success for that team but it also was the beginning of the slide. Chaudhary says the team had hoped to get another chance to perform at the 1984 Olympics by virtue of being continental champions. “We had prepared well for it, we had worked hard. But the organisers decided to include only the world’s top six teams and we missed the bus. That was the beginning of the downfall,” she rues.

Since then, it has been a case of ‘so near, yet so far’ for the women’s team. In 1986 and 2014, the team finished third in the Asian Games. In 1998, when the men returned with a gold after 32 years, the women, too, had a chance but lost narrowly to South Korea 1-2 in the final. An Olympics berth remained a dream.

Stumbling, recovering

The next decade was to be the golden period for Indian women’s hockey but the Olympics still remained out of reach. Under coach Gurdayal Singh Bhangu, the team won a historic maiden Commonwealth Games gold in 2002. The line-up at that time, in the late ’90s and early 2000, included some of the most talented players ever. The likes of Sita Gosain and Siwach and thereafter Mary, Mamta Kharab, Surajlata Devi, and Jyoti Sunita Kullu kept Indian hopes alive. Coaches Bhangu and MK Kaushik played a big role in the development of women’s hockey during that period. It was also the time the game spread to Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab and Odisha.

The sex scandal in 2008-09 destroyed it all. Coach Kaushik was accused of sexual harassment, and suspended, and an enquiry committee formed. The charges were found to be fabricated by a group of players. But by then, the damage had been done. A team that had won silver at the 2006 CWG failed to even reach the semifinals four years later, at home.

In many ways, 2012 saw the rebirth of the team and the results are becoming apparent only now. Qualifying for the Olympics is the biggest reward for four years of efforts. The team knows its limitations at Rio but there is the question of losing focus. Hawgood admits the main target is making Rio the springboard for further growth.

“For us, Rio is not the end of our Olympic journey but the beginning. With the experience of playing against the best in the world in the biggest arena, we want to build a side that can challenge for a medal in 2020,” says the coach.

Shailesh Chaturvediis a Delhi-based sports writer

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