Hockey: 'Talkative' Thakur captivates audience

Deepika Thakur, captain of the Indian hockey team. Photo / Duncan Brown

She never wanted to be a captain but Deepika Thakur is relishing the role of leadership in the India hockey team.

"I just wanted to be a team player," says the 25-year-old from Haryana through translator Jagdeep Singh Judge, of Hastings.

The senior clerk with government-run Railway Coach Factory is the Hawke's Bay Cup tournament skipper, suspecting coach Neil Hawgood has selected her because she talks too much but the other teammates also find her quite captivating.

On a serious note, Thakur says she and first-choice captain Ritu Rani, who isn't here, have a lot of respect from their teammates.

"We have to motivate some of the new girls to inspire them because you can't [coerce] them into doing things."

The midfielder/defender echoes the sentiments of all the troops when she says they are excited by the prospect of going to Rio although Hawgood has yet to make his final cull.

"We're practising twice as hard but we're prepared to go three times harder to prove to him that his hard work will not be wasted."

Thakur found traction with a hockey stick when she was 12 but it helped that her elder brother, Bhupinder Singh, was a PE teacher who coached at her school.

"I was in a safe environment and my father was very supportive," she says, realising at the 2006 World Cup she could make a career of it.

She's aware her team are in a critical stage to not only promote India's No 2 sport but also impress that girls should have equal opportunities with boys if not be better than them.

She thanked Hockey India president Dr Batara for allowing foreign coaches to help and not be one dimensional.

Gold in Rio is the goal.