She is a vital cog in the Indian women hockey team’s forward line – a key operator who forms a potent combination with the other talented forwards. Rani Rampal wears an ‘experienced hat’ even though she is just 21 – but for someone, who made her senior international debut at the age of 15 at the 2009 Champions Challenge Tournament in Kazan, she does lend loads of experience to the Indian team.
A product of the Shahbad Hockey Academy, Rani is going through the hard yards at the ongoing camp in Bengaluru as part of her preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics, where India are featuring after a gap of 36 years.
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The crafty forward, who landed an assistant coach job with Sports Authority of India (SAIL) last year, something rare given the fact that she is at the peak of her playing career, spoke about her game and Rio Olympics in an exclusive interview.
Here are a few excerpts:
Q The Indian women’s hockey team had a fairly good run in the recent South Africa tour. Your thoughts.
It was a good exposure for the team as we are preparing for the Rio Olympics. We won six of the eight matches on the South Africa tour – we nearly held Germany to a draw but for a final minute goal we conceded. We beat Scotland twice and hosts once – overall pretty satisfying outing for us.
Q There was a time when the Indian eves used to suffer big defeats against teams like the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand among others. Do you think the national team have been able to bridge the gap with these big teams?
We have been playing these top teams regularly in last few years and frequently playing them has helped us to improve our level of hockey. More importantly, there is more self-belief than it used to be before.
Q You are just 21 but look like a veteran having played for the senior team since 2009 – featuring in two Asian Games, two Commonwealth Games and one World Cup. Do you think you have a big responsibility as far as scoring field goals for the team are concerned at the Olympics?
Obviously, it is a responsibility but there is no pressure as such coping with it. I have been playing for a long time for the senior team and I have to deliver when needed. All our forwards be it Vandana Katariya, Anuradha are all talented.
Q What are the improvement areas of our forward line?
Our girls are working hard and we all look to raise the performance bar. The emphasis is more on increasing the understanding among ourselves on the pitch and that will help hugely ahead of the Rio Olympics.
Q What realistic expectations hockey fans can have from the national team at the Rio Olympics considering they are featuring in it after a gap of 36 years?
At this point in time, it is difficult to say we will do this or that at Rio. I can tell you that the girls are really slogging it out and no team can write us off.
Q The Indian team worked without a head coach for many months last year after Neil Hawgood quit – then Mathew Ahrens took over in May 2015 and then Neil Hawgood was called back as head coach in November 2015. Did all these developments affect the morale of the players?
Not really. Our job is to play hockey and we have been playing together for a long while now – so we never had any issues.
Q You were appointed as assistant coach by Sports Authority of India (SAI) last year – how is it going?
It’s a great feeling to be an SAI coach but for now, I’m focused on doing well for India at the Rio Olympics. I focus on the SAI job only during off-camp and off-competition periods.
Q Finally, what’s your take on India’s drag-flick firepower as compared to teams like Netherlands and Australia?
I think we have decent strength in our drag-flickers – Jaspreet Kaur and Gurjit Kaur are quite promising and we will count on them for goals from short corners.
