The Indian women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the ''Nabhvarna'') represents

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in international

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, and is governed by

Hockey India Hockey India plans, directs and conducts all the activities for both men and women hockey in India. It is recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt. of India as the sole body responsible towards promoting Hockey in India. It w ...

. Nabhvarna are currently ranked 6th in the

FIH World Rankings The FIH Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in field hockey. The teams of the member nations of International Hockey Federation (FIH), field hockey's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results. The r ...

, and are ranked as the best team in Asia. They have won the gold medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and 1982 Asian Games. They have also won the

Women's Asia Cup The Asian Cricket Council Women's Asia Cup or ACC Women's Asia Cup is a women's One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket tournament. It was established in 2004 and is a biennial tournament. The tournament is contested by crick ...

twice, i.e. in 2004 and 2017. They also won the Asian Champions Trophy in 2016.

History

The team's breakthrough performance came at the

Women's Hockey World Cup The Women's FIH Hockey World Cup is the field hockey World Cup competition for women, whose format for qualification and the final tournament is similar to the men's. It has been held since 1974. The tournament has been organized by the Internat ...

Mandelieu Mandelieu-la-Napoule (; oc, Mandaluec la Napola; locally spelled Mandelieu-La Napoule) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera, just to the ...

in 1974, where it finished in 4th place. Their best performance in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

was at 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics (where they came in 4th), when a women's event was held for the first time in Olympic history. The team also won the

Gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the inaugural 1982 Asian Games held in

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, defeating

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in the finals. Captain Suraj Lata Devi led the team to the

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

for three consecutive years at different events- during the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the 2003

Afro-Asian Games The Afro-Asian Games were the series of inter-continental multi-sport competitions, held between athletes from Asia and Africa. These Games are one-of-a-kind, since no other sporting competition brings athletes from these two continents together ...

, and the

2004 Women's Hockey Asia Cup The 2004 Women's Hockey Asia Cup was the fifth edition of the Women's Hockey Asia Cup. It was held from 1 to 8 February 2004 at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi, India. The winner qualified for the 2006 World Cup. India won the tou ...

. Team members were referred to as the "assi (Jasjeet) jaisi koi nahi" or the "Golden Girls of Hockey," after the 2004 win. The team earned a 3rd-place finish at the 2013 Women's Hockey Asia Cup at

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

defeating

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in a shootout. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, it finished in 5th place but at

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...

Incheon Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...

stunned

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

2–1 in a tight match to clinch their third

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

. During the summer of 2015, the team hosted the

Round 2 Round 2 may refer to: * ''Round 2'' (J. Holiday album), 2009 * ''Round 2'' (The Stylistics album), 1972 * Round 2 (company), a toy company based in Indiana, United States {{disambiguation ...

of the 2014–15 Women's FIH Hockey World League and finished on top to qualify for the next stage. At the World League Semi-finals held in

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the team finished in the fifth place beating higher ranked Japan in classification match. The Indian woman's national field hockey team qualified for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

for the first time since the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. They were eliminated in the group stage, however, where they placed 6th.

2002 Commonwealth Games and ''Chak De! India'' (2007)

The 2002 Commonwealth Games Squad, led by Captain Suraj Lata Devi, competed in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The team entered the finals after defeating the New Zealand women's national field hockey team. and placed first, winning the Gold after they beat the English women's hockey team. This event served as the inspiration for the 2007

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film about women's field hockey, ''

Chak De! India ''Chak De! India'' () is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film directed by Shimit Amin and produced by Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films, with a script written by Jaideep Sahni. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Kabir Kh ...

'' starring

Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works in Hindi films. Referred to in the media as the " Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" ...

(after screenwriter

Jaideep Sahni Jaideep Sahni (born 1968) is an Indian screenwriter, songwriter and creative producer, who wrote the screenplays for films like '' Chak De! India'', ''Khosla Ka Ghosla'', '' Company'', ''Bunty Aur Babli'', '' Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year' ...

read a short article about it). Sahni began to model the character of Kabir Khan on hockey coach

Maharaj Krishan Kaushik Maharaj Krishan Kaushik (2 May 1955 – 8 May 2021) was a member of the India men's national field hockey team and coach of the India women's national field hockey team. Biography He was a member of the team when it won the gold medal at t ...

. After hearing the storyline, Kaushik suggested that Sahni meet hockey player

Mir Ranjan Negi Mir Ranjan Negi is a field hockey player and former goalkeeper of the India men's national field hockey team. He was involved with the development of the 2007 hit film, ''Chak De India.'' He was born in Almora district of Uttarakhand. 1982 ...

(who faced accusations of throwing the match against Pakistan during the 1982 Asian Games). Sahni has stated that he was unaware of Negi's tribulations while writing the script and that the resemblance with Negi's life was entirely coincidental. Negi affirmed this point stating that he didn't "want to hog the limelight. This movie is not a documentary of Mir Ranjan Negi's life. It is in fact the story of a team that becomes a winning lot from a bunch of hopeless girls". In response to the fact that the media equated Kabir Khan with Negi, Sahni said that "Our script was written a year and a half back. It is very unfortunate that something, which is about women athletes, has just started becoming about Negi."

Tokyo Olympics and resurgence

India at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

for the first time ever, reached the semi-final in the Women's Hockey Olympic event but failed to bag any medal after they lost to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the semi-final and then to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

in the bronze medal match. Following their performance at the Olympics, the team went to win bronze medals at the 2022 Asia Cup and the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

and a third place finish in the 2021–22 Pro League. In 2022 India won the first ever FIH Women's Nations Cup.

Medal table

Tournament record

Summer Olympics

World Cup

Commonwealth Games

Asian Games

Asia Cup

Asian Champions Trophy

FIH Pro League

FIH Hockey Nations Cup

South Asian Games

Defunct competitions

World League

Champions Challenge

Hockey Series

Afro-Asian Games

Results and fixtures

2022

Players

Current squad

The following 20 players were named on 9 November 2022 for the 2022 Hockey Nations Cup in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, Spain. ''Caps updated as of 17 December 2022, after the match against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

.'' Head coach:

Janneke Schopman Johanna ("Janneke") Dorotheo Maria Schopman (born 26 April 1977) is a former Dutch field hockey player who played as a defender for Dutch club HC Den Bosch and the Netherlands national team. She is the head coach of the Indian women's national ...

Recent call-ups

These players were called-up in the last 12 months.

Awards

;Summer Olympics *During the 2008 Women's Field Hockey Olympic Qualifier, the team ranked fourth in the "Qualifying Two" event.

Rani Devi Rani Devi is a member of the Indian Women's Hockey Team. She was named the Most Promising Young Player of the Tournament at the conclusion of the second qualifier. External links Rani Devi On Fire Living people Indian female field hockey p ...

received the '' Most Promising Young Player of the Tournament'' award. (

Squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

) ;Hockey World Cup *During the 2001 Women's Hockey World Cup Qualifier, the team ranked 7th. Sanggai Chanu received the '' Young Player of the Tournament'' award. (

) ;Hockey Champions Challenge * During the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Hockey Champions Challenge, Jyoti Sunita Kullu received the '' Topscorer'' award for five goals. (

) ;Dhyan Chand Award *

Mary D'Souza Sequeira Mary D'Souza Sequeira (born 18 July 1931) is an Indian female Olympian who competed internationally in track and field and field hockey. She competed in the Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres, women's 100 and 200 metres ...

(1953–1963) ;Arjuna Awards The following is a list of recipients for the Arjuna award in hockey recipients (by year): *

Helen Mary Helen Mary Innocent (born 14 March 1977 in Kerala) is a field hockey goalkeeper from India, who made her international debut for her native country in 1992 in the test series against Germany. In 2003, she saved two penalty strokes in final tie ...

, 2004 * Suraj Lata Devi (former captain), 2003 *

Mamta Kharab Mamta Kharb (born 26 January 1982, Sonipat, Haryana) is the former captain of the Indian women's hockey team. During the 2002 Commonwealth Games, she scored the winning goal which gave India the GoldShe also served as the model f ...

, 2002 *

Madhu Yadav Madhu Yadav is former Captain of the India women's national field hockey team. She is a 1986 Asian Games bronze-medallist. She has also received the Arjuna Award in 2000 from the President of India. She has also coached the team after her retir ...

, 2000 * Tingonleima Chanu, 2000 * S. Omana Kumari, 1998 *

Pritam Rani Siwach Pritam Rani Siwach (born 2 October 1974) is a former captain of the Indian women's hockey team. In 2008, she was recalled to join the team for the Olympic qualifiers in order to bring an "additional wealth of experience." After the team did ...

(former captain), 1998 *

Prem Maya Sonir Prem Maya Sonir (born July 14, 1961) is the Retired Sport Officer of North Eastern Railways Headquarters Gorakhpur. During the 1980 Olympics, she was one of the star members of India's hockey team which also included the Saini Sisters and Lor ...

, 1985 * Rajbir Kaur, 1984 *

Varsha Soni Varsha Soni (from Jaipur, Rajasthan) was a member of the Indian Women's Hockey Team. She was raised in Jaipur, Rajasthan and is the youngest of 7 sisters and 1 brother. She studied at University Maharani College, University of Rajasthan, Jaip ...

, 1981 * Eliza Nelson, 1980–1981 * Rekha B.Mundhphan, 1979–1980 *

Lorraine Fernandes Lorraine Fernandes (born 24 December 1954) is an Indian field hockey player. She competed in the women's tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics. During the Olympics she was one of the star members of India's hockey team which also included the ...

, 1976–1977 * Ajinder Kaur, 1975–1976 * Dr. Otilia Mascarenhas, 1973–1974 * Sunita Puri, 1966 * Elvera Britto, 1965 * Anne Lumsden, 1961

References

External links

*
FIH profile
{{Navboxes colour , title = Titles , bg = gold , list1 = {{Asian Games field hockey women's tournament winners {{Women's Hockey Asia Cup winners {{Commonwealth Games women's field hockey tournament winners {{Women's Asian Champions Trophy winners 1

National team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

Asian women's national field hockey teams

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...