at the helm: Asunta Lakra

It’s a chak de moment for Jharkhand women’s hockey. Simdega district’s Asunta Lakra has been chosen to captain Indian senior women’s hockey team at a four-nation tournament to be played in Argentina from December 7 to 18.

Besides India and the host country, South Africa and Ireland will play at the event. India plays her first match on December 7 against the hosts at Buenos Aires.

“I am very, very, very happy to have been selected the captain of the Indian team. But at the same time I do realise the immense responsibility that comes with the job,” Asunta told The Telegraph over phone from Bhopal, where she is at a training camp for the Argentina tie.

Asunta, representing India since 2000, is a veteran centre-half and has played around 80 international matches. She will now lead an 18-member team with Kirandeep Kaur as the vice-captain.

Incidentally, she is the only member of Team India from Jharkhand. “Yes, it’s an honour. Though there’s pressure, I’m getting support from officials. I am sure that support will continue and we’ll do well in Argentina,” she said.

She may be suffering from performance anxiety, but Asunta certainly won’t feel homesick in Argentina.

One of the two coaches for the women’s team is Jharkhand’s very own Samurai Tete, also a former captain of the Indian women’s hockey team that had won the Commonwealth Games hockey silver medal in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. Asunta was also a part of that team.

Asunta happens to be the sister of former national players Vimal and Virendra Lakra, who once enjoyed cult status as hockey heroes. “The hockey stick was the centre of our lives,” laughed Asunta. “My brothers played and discussed hockey all the time. I used to tag along with them to the field,” she recalled fondly.

It is a record that the three Lakra siblings have represented the national hockey team.

“My brothers still advise me on my game and strategy,” Asunta said.

The third good tidings from women’s hockey turf is that former international and a pillar of Jharkhand women’s hockey, Savitry Purty, left for Sonepat on Wednesday to select the Indian women’s team for the forthcoming junior Asian and possibly the world cup tournaments.

“Asunta’s selection is great news for Jharkhand. Not so long ago, as many as six players from Jharkhand used to be in the national team,” said Purty before leaving for Sonepat.

Recalling the gritty girl from Simdega’s Nongera village, Purty said: “I had recommended her inclusion in the South Eastern Railway (SER) women’s hockey team.”

Jharkhand girls Tete, Helen Soy and Pushpa Pradhan have led the senior Indian women’s hockey team before.