Shortly after speaking out about the treatment she had received from Hockey India, Janneke Schopman resigned on Friday as the head coach of the Indian women’s hockey team.
With the Indian women’s team failing to qualify for the Olympics in Paris and the Dutch coach’s shocking interview about Hockey India officials, Schopman’s departure from the Indian team was inevitable.
A persistent concern throughout Schopman’s 2.5-year tenure as the women’s team captain was the exclusion of team captain Rani Rampal from the squad.
India had placed fourth in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics while Rani was captain. However, since Schopman succeeded fellow countryman Sjoerd Marijne as captain of the Indian team, she had hardly played for the women’s team.
Schopman disclosed that she had informed Rampal that “it was time” following the Olympics in Tokyo.
“Rani told me she was hurt while competing in the Olympics in Tokyo. However, she kept it from me and Sjoerd Marijne (during the Olympics). I therefore gave her plenty of time to heal. She had long-lasting injuries. The medical staff said she could not play back-to-back games in the Pro League, so she could only play one. After she played against Belgium, I decided she wasn’t good enough to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the Hockey World Cup. She was not interested in hearing that message. According to Schopman, she disagreed with NNIS Sports.
“I helped her with her rehabilitation. She couldn’t handle all of those things, so I let her leave the SAI campus and not be with the team. You almost have to be present if you’re a good team player. After that, she was well. But she can’t run, and I didn’t think she was good enough.
According to Janneke Schopman, being a woman worker in India was very challenging.
Schopman, the first woman to coach the Indian hockey team, broke down in the Indian Express recently while recalling her difficult time as head coach of the Indian women’s hockey team. India was “extremely difficult for a woman,” according to what she had said.
Schopman had stated that she didn’t feel “valued and respected” by her employers Hockey India and that she had felt “alone a lot in the last two years.” She had also brought up the fact that the men’s hockey team was being treated differently from the women’s team.
