When P.R. Sreejesh announced, through a series of comic strips on social media, his decision to retire from international hockey after the Paris Olympics, the move made sense given how he had been talking about it for some time now, with broken bones and the stress of performance. The way he did it, though, was unprecedented in Indian sports, both for the clarity of thought and the planning that went into it.
It was also representative of the man himself — doing things not done before, knowing himself better than anyone else and, most importantly, getting his timing impeccable. His has been a journey backed by hard work and willpower over two decades of national duty that started with an Australia tour as a junior back in 2004.
Born on May 8, 1988 in Kizhakkambalam in Kerala, in the farming family of P.V. Raveendran and Usha Kumari, Sreejesh joined the GV Raja Sports School in Thiruvananthapuram — the first of many, established with the sole purpose of nurturing sporting talent in the State. Sreejesh was 12 then and this move was tough on him. Yet, it marked the start of his incredible sporting journey.
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Spotted by State coach Jayakumar and rising up the ranks before being selected for the junior national camp, Sreejesh made his junior India debut against Australia in Perth in 2004. He played his first game for the national team at the 2006 SAF Games in Colombo and followed it up with the Junior Asia Cup title in 2008 as the ‘Goalkeeper of the Tournament’. It was the first of many he would pick up, the last of them being crowned as the man with ‘Lightning Reflexes’ at the end of the 2023-24 season of FIH Pro League.
He also started for India at the 2010 World Cup in New Delhi despite being the junior goalkeeper. However, he was injured after a few games. In the maiden edition of the Asian Champions Trophy in 2011, when his heroics in the shoot-out in the final against Pakistan helped India win, Sreejesh was in the spotlight.
He repeated the feat at the 2014 Asian Games, helping India win the title after 16 years. He was handed the reins of the team for the Rio Olympics in 2016, taking over from Sardar Singh, but was replaced in 2018, true to the style of Indian hockey’s strange ways. By the time the Tokyo Olympics came around in 2021, Sreejesh had cemented his place among the world’s best goalkeepers, proving it all over again to win bronze, ending a 41-year medal drought in his third outing.
Away from the field, he has been coach-mentor to more than one generation of Indian players at both junior and senior levels. While his constant shouting from the back during India’s games is famous, not many know of the crucial role he played with the Junior World Cup-winning side in 2016, guiding Vikas Dahiya and Krishan Pathak as the goalkeeping coach while recovering from his own injury. “They listen to me because I have been in those situations myself, my words come from a place of experience. It is something I have always wanted to do,” he had said back then.
As one of the most popular players in the team over the last 15 years and a crowd favourite, Sreejesh has been the star Indian hockey desperately wanted since the exit of Dhanraj Pillay. Sreejesh, in fact, has gone a step further — he has the charisma and the innate ability to attract the spotlight of Dhanraj without the mercurial temper of the latter. His demeanour has also made him a star back home in Kerala, a State not really enamoured by hockey. That the entire Paris Olympics campaign for the Indian team gradually grew around him is a testimony to his role as an important binding factor within the side.
His medal cabinet is full. The one missing is the World Cup, something he continues to regret. “But there will always be more tournaments and temptations to just try one more time. When do you stop? I am done,” he had said before Paris.
Come October 1, he will get his wish, taking charge of the Indian junior men’s team. Hopefully the clarity he brought to his entire career will be visible in his new role as well, along with the flamboyance, embodied in his farewell.