Eliza Nelson
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A brief biography
[From the archives, Dec 24, 2023: The Times of India]
Eliza Nelson, hockey champion
➤ The grass was meaner on the other side. Half a century ago, when a teenaged Eliza Nelson’s hockey team set foot on foreign greens for the first time, the synthetic grass had turned their self-funded shoes into sloppy skates. “It was our first time on AstroTurf. We were a disaster,” recalls Nelson about their forgettable debut at the Women’s Hockey World Cup in Madrid in 1978.
➤ India did not boast AstroTurf grounds during those impoverished years when Nelson dominated the scene in India. Unlike modern versions made from fibres of glass, carbon and aramid, hockey sticks were made of wood then and goalkeepers wore kits made of cane and grass — an armour that would defeat its purpose every monsoon. ➤ A student of Minoo Golakhari, a freelance trainer based in Pune, 1956-born Nelson enjoyed an eightyear national reign bookended by golds before hanging up her pair of sponsored Japanese boots. “Best to retire at the top,” says Nelson, who continued to play for the railways.
➤ “Sat Sri Akal,” the girls had screamed at the start of their debut Olympics game in Moscow in 1980, which drew many local Indian women residents to the stands. The team stood fourth in the tournament, losing the bronze medal game under controversial circumstances. In a retrospective interview, Nelson would attribute the loss to tiredness stemming from too much practice.
➤ The delicate glass-encased redkimono-clad Japanese doll that draws the eye in her home is one of four trophies India won in 1981 in Japan’s Kyoto where the Indian team went to play the Asian Women’s Hockey Championship.
➤ Passersby would stop near the lawns of India Gate to watch the girls perform rigorous exercises during their mandatory two-hour training period in the lead-up to the 1982 Asian Games, which the team would eventually win. Afternoons in the three-month training period entailed playing competitive hockey against men’s teams.
➤ Long touted as favourites to win the match in the round-robin series boasting six countries, India cruised its way through the inaugural match.
➤ That November, the Gandhis would be seen in the stands of the modest Shiva ji stadium where Nelson’s name was chanted in a thousand-throated chorus. “Mrs Indira Gandhi, who was the PM, had suggested my name for the award,” says Nelson, recalling the Padma Shri she received in 1983. News about the honour had come to her via a gooseflesh-inducing telegram from Delhi.
➤ A lot had changed in the game since the time at the Patiala national camp when her team would coax drinking water from a local handpump. Which is why the washing machine on each floor and an on-call “juiceman” — modern comforts she saw as a selector in Patiala — would startle her.
➤ Happy to note the progress of the current women’s hockey team, Nelson believes more AstroTurf grounds would help the cause of budding players. Curated by Ketaki Desai, with inputs from Sharmila Ganesan Ram.
