My father has put in lot of effort to help me reach Indian hockey team: Navneet Kaur

women's hockey team that claimed a historic fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics, forward Navneet Kaur says it was the relentless efforts of her father which helped her to play for the national team. "I always had a great interest in sports since my childhood. My father wanted me to be a cricketer, but there was no cricket in my hometown - Shahabad," Navneet said in 'Hockey Te Charcha' -- a podcast series initiated by Hockey India.

"There was a school in front of my house where hockey was played and that's where I started playing the sport. My father, who used to work in a TV repairing shop, has put in a lot of effort to help me reach the Indian team." The 26-year-old from Haryana had scored a late goal to help India beat Ireland 1-0 in the group stage and keep their hopes alive for a place in the quarterfinals at Olympics last year. Navneet had burst onto the scene when she had converted a penalty stroke to help India win a bronze at the 2013 junior World Cup.

"The junior World Cup 2013 was the biggest tournament for me when I joined the Junior Indian women's team. It was quite a good tournament for me. We won the bronze medal after winning a shoot-out and I had also scored in the shoot-out," she said.

"A lot of players from that Indian Junior team are playing together in the current Senior India Team. It has felt really nice to play with the same players for so many years." Her India teammate Neha also spoke about the challenges that she faced on way to representing India and stressed on the importance of her mother in her life. "I faced a lot of challenges when I started playing hockey.