Interview with Rani Rampal: "Disappointed not to get Hockey India award"

Rani Rampal scored six goals at the HWL round 2

Rani Rampal is a forward most opposition teams would like to keep her at bay. The 20-year-old Shahbad girl has been battling with injuries in recent times and even missed the exposure tour of Spain. Rani, who did not appear fully fit in the HWL Round 2 Event in New Delhi, still proved her worth scoring six goals. Rani, who is employed with Railways, spoke in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda.

Excerpts:

Q. How would you assess your team’s chances in the upcoming Hawke’s Bay Cup to be held in New Zealand?

The girls are working hard at the ongoing camp in New Delhi. I have been to New Zealand twice before and this will be my third visit. My earlier experience of playing there will surely help. Most of the teams we would be facing in the Hawke’s Bay Cup will be featuring in the Hockey World League semifinals to be held in Belgium in June. It will be a handy experience for us and if we makes mistakes and we can work on them before the HWL semifinals.

Q. You have become injury-prone off late. You had first dislocated your shoulder and then you had a back injury. How frustrating it is to cope with injuries?

It is frustrating to endure such injuries. I dislocated my shoulder and could not travel with the national team to Spain and then I had a back injury, which only compounded my woes. I sometimes feel that the kind of effort I put in to recovery from injuries, if I would have put the same effort in my game, I would have improved even more as a player.

Q. You did not appear to be at your fluent best in the Hockey World League Round 2 Event in New Delhi, yet you scored six goals in the tournament, including a superb goal in the final against Poland?

I won’t say I was unhappy with my performance, but the fact is that I’m never satisfied with my performance. I always want to keep improving.

Q. Do you really feel that Indian women’s team can qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics after 36 years?

The way the girls have performed over the years gives us the confidence that we can perform well in the Hockey World League semifinals and make the cut. If we can qualify for the Olympics, it will be a big boost to women’s hockey in the country.

Q. Indian women’ have shown the fight to beat or at least draw against the likes of China, Japan and Korea. As the world number 13 side how gap India have to bridge to be with top teams like Netherlands, Australia, Argentina and New Zealand?

The thing is we played these Asian teams at various regional tournaments and we are acquiring the confidence to hold our own against these side. As for the top sides like Netherlands and others we need to play regularly. Since we don’t qualify for the Olympics and not play in the Champions Trophy, we don’t play these teams often and when we play once in a while we don’t know how to tackle them. Look at the men’s team – they have improved so much because they regularly play teams like Australia, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.

Q. You missed out on the Hockey India award for the best hockey player of 2014. Your thoughts.

I was really disappointed not to get the award as I thought I performed well last year. I was one of the nominated players for FIH Player of the Award and hence it was surprising for me not to get this award. I have nothing against anyone, just that I felt I deserved the award.

Q. How important is to have women’s hockey league on the lines of HIL?

It will do a lot of good to Indian women’s hockey. As you can see the three editions of the men’s HIL has brought so many talented youngsters to the fore and I have no doubts that plenty of talented women players would emerge once we have a league of our own.

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Edited by Staff Editor