Last month, the Indian women's hockey team failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, after finishing fourth in the qualifying tournament on home turf in Ranchi.
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Seeking to bounce back from that disappointment, India began their 2023-24 Pro League campiagn in February. However, they lost three matches in a row to China, Netherlands and Australia before finally getting on the board with a win over USA.
After eight matches in the league, India sit in sixth place out of nine teams, having won just two matches so far
What did hockey coach Janneke Schopman say about India?
This latest run of poor form is concerning from an on-pitch point of view. However, recent comments from head coach Janneke Schopman have indicated deeper problems within the team setup.
After India's shoot-out victory over USA on Sunday, Schopman broke down during an interaction with the press as she detailed the day-to-day difficulties of working with Hockey India. According to New Indian Express, she said,
I look at the difference at how men’s coaches are treated between me and the men’s coach, or the girls and the men’s team, just in general. They never complain and they work so hard. I am not saying, I don’t know, I don’t know why and I shouldn’t speak for them so I won’t.
I love them. I think they work so hard, they do what I ask, they wanna learn, wanna do new things but for me personally coming from the Netherlands, having worked in the USA, this country is extremely difficult as a woman, coming from a culture where, yeah, you can have an opinion and it’s valued. It’s really hard.
Schopman did admit that higher-ups in Hockey India, such as CEO Elena Norman and President Dilip Tirkey had been supportive of her, but on the whole she did not feel valued or respected within the organisation.
She was also asked about whether the men's team received prefential treatment from Hockey India but remained cautious in her response, saying, "I don't know. I just know that when the World Cup didn't go well for the men's team, all focus was on them. Since February 2023, all the focus was on the men's team."
Will Janneke Schopman continue as India women's hockey coach?
Schopman also said that now, she felt she should have stepped down after the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She remained non-committal on her future as India's head coach but if the situation does not improve, it is not unreasonable to say that Schopman could step down sooner rather than later.
As a player, Schopman won the Olympic gold (2008 Beijing) and the World Cup (2006, Madrid) for the Netherlands.