Hockey India launched a month-long campaign to commemorate 100 years of Indian hockey on Tuesday. Over the years, excluding the World Cup and Asian Games honours, India has won eight Olympic gold medals, one silver, and four bronze.
Despite its glorious past, particularly the golden era between 1928 and 1959, the sport hit a blip, and only until the last decade have we started to witness a real resurgence.
Such was the fall that India failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2008, and four years later, even if they did qualify, they were crushed. Finally, after a long wait of 41 years, India managed to secure a podium finish at the pandemic-hit Olympics, and three years later, they repeated the feat in Paris.
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Between those last two medals stood PR Sreejesh, guarding India's hopes, standing tall and blocking shots, flashbacks of which are still fresh in every fan's eyes.
"I've seen the up and the down. When I started, we were a 12 or 13-ranked team in the world, and the best we came was in the top three. So that was the scenario which I witnessed, but there is no ME in hockey, it's all WE," he said in an exclusive chat with Moneycontrol.
"I believe the evolution started in 2013. In 2008, we didn't qualify for the Olympics, in 2012, we lost all matches, but then for six years we managed to keep one of the best group. We won the 2014 Asian Games, a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, so there were good performances gradually. We started to develop our mentality into a winning mode," he added.
A four-time Olympian, Sreejesh made his senior debut in 2006. After spending almost 18 years, Sreejesh finally drew curtains on an illustrious career, during which he worked with multiple coaches. Reflecting on the resurgence, Sreejesh humbly denied taking any credit, instead thanked all foreign coaches for blending the European and Australian style of play into the existing skillful Indian style, which made it possible.
Now, as a chief coach of the junior men's hockey team and the Director of Hockey at Hockey India League (HIL) team Delhi SG Pipers, Sreejesh hopes to inculcate the learnings to the next generation. "I think that somewhere we need to change the gear and the coming players, they just need to go with that rhythm. We have lifted from the ground to a certain level, now in the future, they just need to push it from there," he noted.
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Sreejesh admits his role as Director of Hockey, which is more on the administrative front, is "totally different" from playing or coaching, but he claims to be "enjoying it."
"SG Pipers are there to promote hockey at the grassroots level, to provide the best players to the national team.
"Every player has their dreams that my team should take care of me like this, they need to give all these facilities, so that is what I try to do here. From picking them up from their hometown, getting them here, and playing this tournament (HIL), and ensuring that they're going back with all comfort."
Cricket vs Hockey
In a cricket-mad nation like ours, it is common for equally or more hardworking athletes, such as our hockey players, to get overshadowed. However, Sreejesh doesn't agree with the notion. He even cherishes the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and recalls him telling: "Medal kisi bhi game mein aajaye par hockey mein aane k time apna ek alag sa emotion hota hain."
"We get recognition, but we are not there on TV 24x7, that's all the difference. Our Prime Minister talks to us, he takes the names of Indian hockey players, and he said that hockey have emotions of our country.
"What we need to do is telecast more hockey games. We need to conduct more tournaments so that people can come and watch. The telecast should be in prime time, and definitely, the Hockey India League is a great platform for anyone to establish themselves. For a youngster, it's a great platform to perform and get a spot in the Senior team. For the Senior players, that's a place where they compete with the top players in the world. Showcase 'I'm great, that's why I'm in the national team'. For viewers, witness the best players in the world playing alongside and against each other. So I believe that Hockey India league is a great platform," he signed off.