Barely a month after the high of qualifying for the Olympics for the first time ever comes the dampener for women’s hockey with no player being recommended for the Arjuna Award this time as well.
And the two women who deserved it most — captain Ritu Rani and striker Rani Rampal — are expectedly aggrieved. Rani, in particular, has reason to feel hard done by. According to a member of the award selection committee, the government rules stipulate only three names can be sent per sport by the federation but Hockey India had sent more, with Rani’s name lower down the list and therefore not considered.
“How can the order of names decide who gets it or not? Does the position of a name in the team sheet during a match mean one player is more important than the other? Even in individual events, does it matter to the result where or when a player is scheduled to play? This is the most absurd thing to say and it only proves how women’s hockey is treated by everyone in the country,” Rani fumed.
The 20-year-old has been a key member of the national team since making her debut in 2010. At 15, she made it to the FIH All-Stars team at the 2010 World Cup. She was adjudged the ‘Player of the Tournament’ at the 2013 Junior World Cup, where the team won a historic maiden bronze.
The same year, she helped the senior team win bronze at the Asia Cup and last year, propelled India to a bronze at the Asian Games. It were her strikes in crucial games that helped India finish fifth at the Hockey World League Semifinals in Antwerp, keeping the road open for a maiden Olympics qualification.
Performance in the last five years are considered for Arjuna.
“I was so confident of getting the Arjuna this time that I had even told my parents to prepare for coming to Delhi. I did not even bother to follow up on the recommendations, I thought my performances were enough. Every time we think a good performance will bring up some appreciation, the government ignores us. And yet, they expect us to win medals. Hockey is a tough game and without motivation there can be no results. If women’s hockey is considered so useless when it comes to recognition, I don’t think anyone can demand miracles from us on field,” she said.
Captain Ritu Rani, on the other hand, has been the fulcrum of the team for almost a decade. Belonging to the nursery of Shahbad in Haryana — same as Rani — Ritu is the team’s midfield marshal who controls the game and finds those gaps that make it easy to score. Ritu has been knocking on the doors of the Awards committee for quite a few years now but with the upcoming year most likely to be her last on the international circuit, this might well have been her last missed chance.
According to sources, Ritu was initially named in the shortlist of 17 awardees before weightlifter Satish Sivalingam was included. That made it a toss-up between Ritu and women’s kabaddi player Abhilasha Mhatre, with the latter getting the nod for the Asiad gold.
Other women in the list of recommendations included senior player Asunta Lakra, young forward Vandana Katariya and midfielder Sushila Chanu.
Wrestler questions criteriaLast year’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist and 2013 World championship silver medallist wrestler Amit Kumar was disappointed on being overlooked for the Arjuna Award for the third consecutive year.
“I have been applying for the award for the last three years. Even though two wrestlers (Bajrang and Babita Kumari) were selected this time, sadly I could not make it,” said Amit.
The ace wrestler questioned the logic behind selecting athletes on the basis of gender (the policy of choosing one male, one female if more than one sportsperson were picked in a particular discipline).
“If you take the points system into account, then I had scored more marks than Babita. Sportspersons should be picked on the basis of their performances and not gender,” he said.
Amit said he might file an RTI query to know why he was left out. “I could have moved court, but the World championship is too close and there is hardly any time left to get distracted.
“The Arjuna Award would have motivated me in the World championship next month. Nevertheless, I want to win the gold medal there and make a strong claim for the Khel Ratna Award next year,” he said.
