Mumbai: The Covid-19 pandemic made Adrian D’Souza, the former India hockey goalkeeper, realise what he had been missing for a few years — getting back to the game he loved. So, he began making videos on Insta Live and Facebook analysing the nuances of goalkeeping.
“From there to have come here, I feel blessed,” he said.
By here, he means with the senior national women’s team as its goalkeeping coach. India’s victorious Women’s Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) campaign in Bihar’s Rajgir in November was D’Souza’s first tournament in that role. The 2004 Athens Olympian couldn’t have been happier with the start in an event where India conceded just two goals across seven matches.
The Mumbai-based D’Souza took a peek into women’s hockey in the country last year when he began his coaching journey with the Indian sub-junior boys and girls. Moving into the senior group this year, with the focus on goalkeeping and defensive structure as part of women’s head coach Harendra Singh’s team, was a big “stepping stone”.
“The biggest challenge was knowing that you’re not only going into the national team, but the women’s team. I have been so used to being with the men’s team through my career, but when you see the potential women’s hockey has in India, it was phenomenal in Rajgir,” D’Souza said. “For me, it was also a lot of learning. You have to think on behalf of, in my case, four goalkeepers. But that’s where I can bring in my experience.”
A contemporary to India’s retired star goalkeeper PR Sreejesh — the double Olympic medallist is four years younger — D’Souza understands the value of healthy competition and hearty camaraderie among goalkeepers in the national group. Savita Punia, the vastly experienced custodian who was also captain, has been that undisputed figure manning the post in the women’s team for several years while Bichu Devi Kharibam has played the understudy.
D’Souza said it was a conscious decision to rotate the two in the ACT through the quarters, something the men’s team has been doing regularly. During certain match simulations in training sessions, D’Souza got all four goalkeepers in the core group — Madhuri Kindo and Bansari Solanki being the others— to play a quarter each.
“It (rotation) has been going on for a while since I joined. It’s something we can’t turn overnight, but we’re looking at it from a long-term view of the World Cup in two years. What if the main goalkeeper is injured for that and the other isn’t ready to play in a big tournament? So it was a conscious call to get two goalkeepers ready to perform. And if the bonding is good between goalkeepers, it pushes you to do better each day. Like it was with Sree (Sreejesh) and me,” D’Souza said.
D’Souza also sees that bonding between Savita, 34, and Bichu, 24. “Competition between Savita and Bichu is really healthy. Both have their strengths. Savita will always be there with her experience, and also of controlling the defence. Keeping her fitness in mind, she is working really hard to be agile. And whatever little opportunity Bichu is getting, she is delivering. That only helps the Indian team. Nowadays in modern hockey, you’re mostly giving equal opportunities to both goalkeepers. We can’t have Savita, and then the rest who are not quite there yet.”
D’Souza said Madhuri and Bansari are also showing progress in an expanding talent pool of women goalkeepers. Hockey India’s goalkeepers programme, through which D’Souza held short clinics in various SAI centres and academies across the country, helped him scout goalkeepers “coming in in good chunk”. That, he reckons, is down to one man. “Sree has brought a new face to goalkeeping, where someone now wants to be a goalkeeper because Sree was one. It’s nice to see that as a former goalkeeper.”
The launch of the women’s Hockey India League — it started in Ranchi on Sunday — albeit with just four teams for now, will also play a role in tapping into that goalkeepers pool. “You saw what happened after the men’s HIL began. I was part of the franchise when Harman (Harmanpreet Singh) joined us,” D’Souza said. “The experience of playing with the best in the world and the opportunity to learn and grow is unmatched. I’m sure the women will get a great boost from it.”