'Even I don’t know why I’m dropped': Rani Rampal

Rani Rampal during a Hockey India press conference at Chennai yesterday. Pic/Hockey India

India women's hockey striker Rani Rampal, 28, who has been constantly kept out of the national team for the last two years, got the perfect platform to voice her discontent on Thursday.

At a press conference to announce Hockey India's new initiative of creating sub-junior national teams with former skipper Sardar Singh and Rani in charge of the boys and girls U-17 teams respectively, the mercurial forward spoke out when asked if this coaching role meant she's retiring from the game.

"Whatever happened with me in the last two years was not right. Everyone knows and has seen that after my injury, I made a comeback and even finished as the highest scorer at the National Games, but was still not picked. The best person, who can answer this [retirement question] is the Chief Coach [Janneke Schopman] or the selectors because even I don't know the answer," said Rani, who led India to a silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and was also the flagbearer of the contingent at the closing ceremony.

‘I am not retiring'

"I am not retiring because I know I still have more to give to the sport as a player. I have this never-give-up attitude. If I wanted to, I would have given up after the [Tokyo] Olympics [where she led the team to a historic fourth-place finish]. I've accepted this [coaching role] as a short-term programme. Initially it's for 345 days, but could be converted into a long-term project," she added.

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Hockey India president and former captain Dilip Tirkey justified Rani's angst. "We understand Rani, she isn't in the team and we have asked the coach and selectors why such a player is not included.

HI boss Tirkey clarifies

"But you need to understand that an association's president and secretary do not interfere in selection matters as that's the responsibility of the selectors and coach. Rani was upset, but I spoke to her. I can't share all the details, but after speaking to her, we proposed this offer, to make her a coach," said Tirkey, adding that the idea behind starting U-17 teams is to improve the grassroot system of the game so that eventually there is a good feeder system for the junior and senior teams. "This programme is for three years and our first camp will be for 45 days where Rani and Sardar will be in charge. We are in talks with the Netherlands and Belgium to send our teams there for exposure tours," added Tirkey.