The Indian women’s hockey team is back in safe hands with Maharaj Krishan Kaushik back as the chief coach. The Olympian and former Indian men’s coach took over about a month back. This development comes just a few months after he was sidelined by the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation.
Olympian AB Subbaiah, who is the goalkeeping coach of the women’s team, confirmed the news and said they have been preparing well for the Olympic qualifying tournament in Kazan (Russia) from April 19 to 27. The winner will make it to the Beijing Olympics.
“Kaushik is back as the chief coach and it is definitely a good sign. He knows the team well and is very much aware of what is to be done,” Subbaiah said of Kaushik.
“The camp has been going on from February 19 in Lucknow. It will be a continuous camp till about April 12. We may go to Kazan a week before the qualifiers start since the place is very cold and we need time to get used to the conditions,” said the former Indian goalkeeper, who is here on a two-day break. “There are currently 32 players in the camp and we may finalise the team in a few days.
“The team is good and we are working hard at the camp. The women’s team has had its fair share of success in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games (silver) and Doha Asian Games (bronze). They are in that medal-winning bracket. We are working to qualify for the Olympics,” he said.
“We lost two matches against the Netherlands and won two against Azerbaijan during a preparatory tour.
“The matches against the Dutch were tough but we gained from the experience. We may play practice matches against Russia before the qualifiers but nothing has been finalised as yet.”
The other teams for the qualification tournament at Kazan will be Russia, USA, France, Belgium and Netherlands Antilles.
“USA, our toughest opponents, are ranked higher than us but we are training hard. “We have beaten top teams like Australia and South Korea not so long ago and are confident,” Subbaiah said.
The women’s team is making the best possible use of technical advisor Ric Charlesworth’s expertise. “We are very much open to suggestions and are in constant touch with Ric. He had come to Holland with us and helped us,” Subbaiah stated.
Regarding the goalkeepers in the team, Subbaiah said: “We have Dipika Murthy, Marita Tirkey, Poonam Toppo and Jasdeep Kaur in the camp and all are doing well.”
The Indian women’s team last played in the Olympics in 1980 at Moscow.
