Indian women's hockey on a high  x2
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| India |
February 9, 2004 
NDTV.com, India
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Vimal Mohan and Anusuya Mathur
The Indian women's hockey team is on a high after winning their maiden Asia Cup tournament beating favourites Japan.
16 year old Jasjit Kaur scored the winning goal against Japan.
Now, the International Hockey Federation has also agreed to nominate two training centres in India as high performance coaching centres where foreign coaches will impart training.
By winning the Asia Cup, India has also automatically qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Madrid.
For a team that is still in the process of building itself up, this was a performance that exceeded the expectations of even their coach, a performance that left hockey experts very impressed.
The Asia Cup victory is being considered one of the biggest in the history of women's hockey in India.
A milestone in history
India may have never won a World Cup before this, but a series of rapidly improving performances during the Asia Cup has raised the level of expectation.
India's best showing at the World Cup was a semi-final berth in the 1974 edition in France. Since then, India's showing at the World Cup has slipped from a 7th place finish in Spain in 1978 to 12th place during the 1998 World Cup in Holland.
Despite the figures, the Asia Cup victory is being described as a milestone, a link in a growing list of achievements that include the gold medal at the 1982 Asian Games, gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and gold once again in last year's Afro Asian Games.
Raising expecations
Captain Suraj Lata has been part of the team through all these victories except the 1982 Asian Games. She believes that while this win will go a long way in motivating the team, there is still need for a lot more match practice.
"We will have to work even harder than we already do for the World Cup. Some more exposure will help us enormously," said Surajlata.
The Asia Cup victory may hold the promise of a better future for women's hockey, but it has also raised the bar by which hockey fans will judge future performances of this team.
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