A World Cup in the Netherlands, in 1998, gave former hockey player Pritam Rani Siwach one of the fondest chapters of her career. Twenty-eight years later, the same tournament and the same country have given her another memory to cherish: watching her son, Yashdeep, make his World Cup debut, making them the first mother-son duo to play in the marquee event.
Pritam has another reason to cheer. Besides Yashdeep, a defender, there are four players in India’s women’s squad at the ongoing Hockey World Cup — defender Jyoti, midfielders Neha Goyal and Shilpi Dabas, and teenage forward Sakshi Rana — from the academy that she and her husband, Kuldeep, set up in Haryana’s Sonipat.
Five World Cup players. One academy. One hockey family.
Over the years, Pritam and Kuldeep have quietly built one of India’s most productive talent pipelines. The academy, which once stood on land used for grazing cattle, is now a breeding ground for elite players, producing internationals such as Neha Goyal, Nisha Warsi and Sharmila Devi.
The couple have relied less on infrastructure and more on persistence, providing young players with coaching, equipment and, just as importantly, a space to train consistently.
Yet, for all the players she has helped shape, there was one youngster Pritam never intended to coach: her own son.
One of Indian sport’s earliest supermoms, Pritam never stopped going to the hockey ground throughout her pregnancy — initially training lightly before coaching the players there.
Seven months after Yashdeep was born, she was back chasing her own dream. She was summoned for the Manchester Commonwealth Games selection trials after deciding to make a comeback to the national team. She shed 18 kgs in three or four months to earn her place in the squad that went on to win India’s famous gold medal.
Pritam eventually set up the academy in Sonepat. But when it came to her son, she wanted a different path.
Yashdeep occasionally accompanied her to the training ground, but she encouraged him to try other sports. She also worried that if he made the national team, his selection would be viewed through the prism of his mother’s influence, even if he had earned it on merit.
So, Yashdeep turned to swimming. Given the sporting genes in the family — his father was also a hockey player and his sister, Kanika, currently plays for India — it was hardly surprising that he excelled. Then, one winter, the swimming pools shut. Yashdeep picked up a hockey stick to pass time, and soon found himself hooked.
Meanwhile, Pritam and Kuldeep continued to scout and train players from across Haryana, moulding them into India stars. Many, like Neha, whose mother worked at a bicycle factory, came from underprivileged backgrounds.
“I wanted to play hockey, but people in my village tried to stop me. I have seen my batchmates having to sacrifice their careers because there was pressure on them to get married. It was a struggle for me, too, and I had to fight my family and neighbours,” says Pritam. “When a girl pursues a career, plays a sport or gets a job, she becomes independent. That’s what I wanted to do for these players.”
She cites the example of one of her brightest young prodigies, Sakshi Rana, the 18-year-old forward who scored in India’s 6-1 hammering of South Africa on Tuesday, the biggest-ever win by margin.
For Sakshi, the couple provided both the fundamentals and the knowledge that comes from decades in the sport. Pritam worked on her understanding of the game, while Kuldeep drilled her in the basics — hitting, carrying and dodging.
Sakshi now fearlessly leads the forward line as one of the four players in the women’s squad from the academy set up by Pritam and Kuldeep. And alongside is Yashdeep, the son Pritam once tried to keep away from hockey.
Over the course of a 18-year-long career, Mihir Vasavda has covered 2010 FIFA World Cup; the London 2012, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games; Asian Games in 2014 and 2022; Commonwealth Games in 2010 and 2018; Hockey World Cups in 2018 and 2023 and the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup. ... Read More
