A red card that still hurts Amit Rohidas

Bengaluru: An empty change room scattered with messy hockey kits and half-opened lockers, sweaty pads and jerseys, scribbled notes and things of prayer…

Among them sat a distraught Amit Rohidas motionless but full of extreme emotions for 43 minutes and more.  

This was after the Indian defender was struck by something that every player prepares for but can never fully comprehend - a red card. And the dreaded send-off came in the 17th minute of a crucial quarterfinal match against Great Britain at the Paris Olympics. 

“I was locked up in the changing room. That’s the rule. A player who gets a red card cannot sit in the dugout. He has to leave the stadium and go back to the hotel or be isolated in the changing room,” Rohidas tells DH, as he begins narrating the incident involving him in a match that a 10-man India famously went on to win through a penalty shoot-out to enter the semifinals in Paris this August. 

“I didn’t watch anything during that period. There was no television, I couldn’t hear anything. The commotion of the crowd... Just nothing. There was only silence,” says the 31-year-old. 

At halftime, when the team came into the changing room, one could presume it to have been an awkward encounter between Rohidas versus the rest given that an Olympic medal was at stake. Turns out, it was quite the opposite. 

“When the coach (Craig Fulton) finished giving instructions for the second half, the team decided to play the rest of the game for me. They were convinced that I wasn’t at fault and the umpire's decision was harsh.”

Though the assurance came as a temporary balm, the wound of letting down his team-mates continued to hurt. An anxious Rohidas, unaware of everything that was transpiring on the field, remained still through another two quarters and more. 

“Finally, Kanta (Nilakanta Sharma, who was a standby) came running and shouted ‘jitgaye bhai’ (we won, brother). That’s when the tears rolled down. I was quietly praying for the team until then without wallowing in self-pity or getting emotional. 

“We were absolutely confident that we would win if the match ended in a draw and went to a shoot-out. That’s the belief we had in Sreebhai (PR Sreejesh),” reminisces the player from Saunamara village in Sundargarh district, Odisha. 

The survival from the jaws of death was always going to be a part of Indian hockey folklore but the impact of his red card carried forward to the semifinal too. Despite Hockey India’s appeal, Rohidas was suspended for a game which meant he missed playing against Germany. 

“I was in the gallery. I think we played a really good match where we gave away only three chances out of which they scored twice (India lost 2-3). Yes, I did feel (still feel) if I was down there, probably, the colour of the medal would have been different.” 

The near-miss to the final inspired the Harmanpreet Singh-led men to go on and win 2-1 against Spain which gave Rohidas his second Olympic bronze medal after winning the first in Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

Thankfully the ‘all’s-well-that-ends-well’ scenario puts a smile of content on the hockey players face today and forever. 

Rohidas is at the cusp of wearing 200 caps (currently 197) for the country since making his India debut in 2013. The Arjuna Awardee was bought by Tamil Nadu Dragons for Rs 48 lakh during the Hockey India League auctions last week making him the fourth highest paid Indian men’s player for the event beginning December 28.  

Not too bad for someone whose family struggled to put together two meals a day when he began as a bare-footed boy playing with bamboo sticks on muddy grounds to grow up to be a part of both the lull and rebirth of Indian hockey.

Now that's what makes Rohidas a player worthy of a ‘gold card’.