At 31, she is the second oldest player in the team and playing her 300th international match on October 31, Vandana Katariya will be in an exclusive club of one as the highest capped Indian women’s hockey player.
From the 2013 Junior World Cup where she played a crucial role in India winning its only medal (bronze) in the tournament so far to being the only Indian player to have an Olympic hat-trick, Vandana has been indispensable to Indian women’s hockey for more than a decade. October 31 would only be a culmination of a long journey that started in the bylanes of Haridwar.
“There were a lot of ups and downs in this journey, a lot of struggle. But everyone goes through that, it’s not unique to me. It feels great to reach here but I wasn’t alone. I have two families – the hockey family here that has given me a lot of support and strengths though all the low periods and it would have been impossible to do it without them, and my family back home which has supported me unconditionally – who have backed me all along,” Vandana said on her milestone.
