Age, no bar for Indian custodian Rao

By N D Prashant/Doha

In a country like India, with over a billion population, opportunities are hard to come by.

 There is no question that one wouldn’t find a sea of talent, but rarely do they get a chance to make up the ranks.

Till most recent times, a flawed system and lack of resources to support players hurt the national sport – hockey.

However, for once it seems that Indian hockey is heading in the right direction. A testimony to this fact is PT Rao. The 34-yr-old custodian has spent over a decade chasing one dream - Play for the country once. His prayers were finally heard at the twilight of his career when he had completely given up hope.

“To tell you frankly I never thought I would ever play for India at this age. For the World Series Hockey also, I was picked but my board didn’t give me permission to go. I was very fed up and even was pondering on quitting the sport and also my army job since I was completing 15 years this coming August.

“The next day I learnt that I was selected for the camp. I was in two minds whether to attend the camp or no. My fitness was not that great and then what is guarantee that I would get to play even if I was selected,” said Rao, who stood out in India’s fourth place performance at the Champions Trophy Hockey in Australia – India’s best ever since 1982.

Rao stepped in only after lead goalkeeper Sreejesh Parattu was forced to pullout following an injury ahead of Champions Trophy and the Hyderabad-born Bangalore resident grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

“The team suffered a huge blow because of the injury to Sreejesh. I had not done well in practice and it was my first match and first experience. Everyone was scared that there won’t be any limit of how many goals the side would concede. I was also a bit scared,” revealed Rao, adding that, it was due to the support and confidence of the coach and teammates that saw him survive the test.

“How much ever experience you have, the first international match is all away going to put you under pressure. We won against England and that changed things for me. Captain Sardar supported me a lot, they showed me videos of previous matches of the teams. I had not seen most of the team play before. But I played well in the first match and got over the fear,” said Rao, whose biggest achievement was to hear words of praise from his sister.

“To hear from my sister that ‘I’m proud of you’ was a huge thing for me. She stays in Mumbai and called me to tell that.

“She told me everyone in her office was showering words of praise for me. Everyone respects her now.  When you hear something like that from your near and dear ones you feel all that wait was worth it,” said an emotional Rao. Despite, the good showing, Rao is still playing second fiddle to Sreejesh in the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy but he is not complaining.

“For me, Sreejesh is currently one of the best goalkeepers of the world. He supported me all the way through and that was a big boost for me. However, now I know my chance will come. All I have to do is to be ready for that challenge. I got an opportunity and made that count. I would like to do that whenever I get a chance. If we win this tournament, it will be a huge achievement for the team and for me,” asserted Rao.