Sports

Hockey coach says India 'extremely difficult for women'

From poor pay to lack of training grounds and media coverage women athletes in India have long faced inequality

AFP February 19, 2024

NEW DELHI:

India women's hockey coach and former Olympic gold medallist Janneke Schopman has hit out at the gender disparity in the country, both in sport and society more widely.

Schopman, the first woman to coach an Indian national hockey team, broke down as she described the preferential treatment enjoyed by the men's team.

"I come from a culture where women are respected and valued. I don't feel that here," Schopman, 46, was quoted as saying in the Indian Express newspaper on Monday.

The former Dutch international was speaking after India defeated the United States via a tie-breaker in a FIH Pro League match in Odisha on Sunday.

From poor pay to lack of training grounds and media coverage, women athletes in India have long faced inequality, especially in male-dominated sports such as hockey and cricket.

Schopman said she felt "alone a lot in the last two years" and wasn't "valued and respected" by her employers, Hockey India.

"I look at the difference at how men's coaches are treated... or the girls and the men's team, just in general," she said.

"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 took over as the women's team head coach after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, having initially joined as the analytics coach.

"Even when I was the assistant coach some people wouldn't even look at me or wouldn't acknowledge me... and then you become the chief coach and all of a sudden people are interested in you. I struggled a lot with that," she said.

Asked what was hardest, she said: "The fact that I feel -- I don't even know if it's true -- that I am not taken seriously."

Hockey India officials could not be contacted immediately for a comment.

Schopman's two-year contract runs until the Paris Olympics later this year. Her team have failed to qualify for the Games, and are next slated to play in the European leg of the Pro League in May.

COMMENTS (1)

Rebirth | 6 months ago | Reply Field hockey is the only sport Indian men should play from now on because Babar Rizwan will win all series and tournaments. There won t be an ICC trophy or championship or any series that Babar Rizwan won t successfully win. Knowing the Indian fan base and Indian culture they ll likely give up on the entire sport of cricket once Babar Rizwan starts winning all ICC trophies and series. Therefore they ll need an alternate sport to play just as Sarfaraz fans gave up on the sport of cricket when they saw Babar Rizwan scoring fifties and centuries. If they stop him from scoring centuries Sarfaraz fans may end up watching cricket again which would be wrong because Babar Rizwan must score not just fifties but also centuries. However if Babar Rizwan starts winning tournaments and series Indian fans will stop watching cricket altogether just like Sarfaraz fans stopped. Sarfaraz fans are also Indians. The only way to bring Sarfaraz fans to watch cricket is to stop Babar Rizwan from scoring millions of runs and In sha Allah by the will of Allah jalla jalalahu that ll never happen because Babar Rizwan is the number one batsman in the Milky Way. We can afford to not have Sarfaraz fans watch cricket. The sad part is that different ratings from different channels have shown that Sarfaraz fans exist outside of Karachi his hometown including in Punjab and even KP. In fact Sarfaraz cameos have brought more ratings and are now more popular than any game of the PSL. Babar Rizwan replaced one of the most popular players in the country who remains popular even after 5 years of being deliberately excluded from the team. But this can all change if Babar Rizwan s current form doesn t change and he continues to score 50s and 100s for another 5 years at the very least. And if Babar Rizwan starts winning ICC trophies and entire series then we can be sure to have a similar impact in at least Indian international games. If we can have Babar Rizwan somehow enter the IPL in the name of South Asia then the IPL will meet the same fate as the PSL which was basically an IPL ripoff to kickstart sports leagues in the country. We all know how that played out for us. The sooner the Americans get the South Asia desk going berserk to ensure that Babar Rizwan scores centuries in the IPL the better. Indian fans will have to give up watching cricket altogether like Sarfaraz fans who can t tolerate watching Babar Rizwan scoring 50s and 100s. There s a two step process here for Indians to stop watching cricket and move on to field hockey alone. One Babar Rizwan wins ICC trophies and cricket series and second Babar Rizwan gets selected to an IPL team for the sake of South Asia. He must score fifties and centuries in all of those tournaments and series. The Indian fanbase will accordingly lose interest just as Sarfaraz fans who hate Babar Rizwan because he scores a lot of runs.

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