Women's hockey merit attention in Andaman and Nicobar, says team coach Amrita Sai

The Andaman and Nicobar women’s hockey team at the 13th Hockey India Senior Women's National Championship being held in Kakinanda, Andhra Pradesh were in the spotlight for losing their league matches by a big margin.

The obvious criticism didn’t go well with Amrita Sai, the team's assistant coach.

“Critics should know that despite challenging conditions back home the women’s team took the field in Andhra Pradesh. Instead of getting a pat on the back to play at the national level, the girls got negative remarks for losing league matches by a big margin,” team coach told Sportskeeda over the phone from Andhra Pradesh.

Hockey Andaman and Nicobar lost all their league matches by a big margin against teams that were more organized in the national competition. When Hockey Andaman and Nicobar lost to Maharashtra by 0-42 and 0-32 to Tamil Nadu, eyebrows have been raised about the team's preparation.

“There are no playing facilities for hockey in Andaman and Nicobar. The team members didn’t receive any financial assistance to compete in the national championship,” Amrita added. “Despite lack of facilities to practice hockey, the overall efforts of the players should be appreciated and not discouraged for conceding goals.”

According to Amrita, a voluntary hockey coach, the players contributed money to compete at the national level as they didn’t had any support from the local government.

“Hockey players are from humble backgrounds. Some of the team members are students, while others work to earn their living. The team could only get one month of practice to prepare for the national tournament that took place on a small grassy ground,” Amrita added.

“The players purchased ordinary shoes to play on the turf before the tournament as they don’t have funds to buy expensive shoes meant to play on the artificial surface.

"Since Hockey Andaman and Nicobar are affiliated with the national governing body of hockey in India, the women’s team got a chance to compete in Andhra Pradesh. “Playing national tournament was sort of eye-opening for the team as they have learned how the teams are playing. It was a huge learning experience for the greenhorns,” the Andaman and Nicobar women’s hockey team coach said.

Andaman and Nicobar in their last league match against Puducherry with a scoreline of 0-12 on Wednesday (February 22).

“We will be going home on Thursday as we lost all our league matches and didn’t qualify for the next round,” the team coach added.