Every save, every dive, each time he did acrobatic stuff to stop the hockey ball from flying into the cage, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh sent the audience into raptures. Well before the Indian hockey team departed for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Sreejesh had decided this would be his last hurrah. Nobody asked him to step down, nobody asked him to make way for the juniors, it was ‘Sree Anna’s’ own decision. That defines him as one of the best ever goalkeepers India has ever had, someone loved even by rival teams as a wonderful human being .
Images from the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in Paris appear in front of the eyes. On August 8, 2024, Sreejesh produced yet another adrenaline-felted performance. Anything and everything a goalkeeper should do – be alert, anticipate and visualise the angle from which the hockey ball would come flying at crazy speeds – Sreejesh was prepared to stop or save it. Finally, when India defeated Spain for the historic bronze medal, Sreejesh sank on his knees, bowed before the goalpost, as if to say a prayer and then shed his heavy gear.
What followed was a mass hysteria of sports with the teammates carrying him around the perimeters of the turf, fans clapping, some even crying. This was with camera motors whirring non-stop, cell phones capturing every possible image from all angles. The master of goalkeeping, whose body dynamics left you in awe, walked out a King.
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The celebration which followed in the dressing room, tears of joy and sadness he was leaving as a player for the last time was difficult to digest. Indian hockey has seen terrible days in the past, when there were ‘camps’ and there was a divide between players from the North and West. Sreejesh is from Kerala but was equally liked by the Singhs from Punjab. One has to recall this as a big moment of Indian sports in 2024, when Sreejesh the giant retired. Every member of the team loved him.
If he was ‘Anna’ for some, he was also ‘Paaji’ for players from North India. That is the kind of legacy Sreejesh left behind, having been part of two Olympic medal campaigns in Tokyo and Paris. To have lasted in international hockey for 18 years, Sreejesh was a role model. And what cannot be forgotten is how he also shone brightly in two Asian Games campaigns, resulting in gold medals in Incheon 2014 and Hangzhou 2023.
This writer is fortunate to have watched him at three Olympics, three Asian Games and a few more events like the FIH World Cups. There have been brilliant goalkeepers before as well from India, but Sreejesh was a role model and a thorough team-man. He dared to do stuff which not many would. And he was a writer’s delight. A few days after India won the bronze medal in Paris, Sreejesh went to the iconic Eiffel Tower, tying a ‘mundu’ (dhoti) around his waist and posing with dark glasses. That photo broke the internet for its ingenuity.
“I have to get back to Kerala, finally,” said Sreejesh, later in Paris, and on the flight back to New Delhi. He has no airs about being a celebrity, travelled economy class and was happy to be settling into a seat in the rear of the aircraft. Did he not deserve a business class seat? “These are small things, I have to be a normal person always,” said Sreejesh. Interviews on flights or even normal conversation can become interesting. Sreejesh made it clear, he wanted to quit and make way for the next generation. He said: “Unless I leave, how will the next generation of goalkeepers come up?”
If that sounded banal, Sreejesh then decided he would opt out of the Hockey India League auction and join SG Pipers as mentor for both the men’s and women’s teams. He quickly slipped into a new role at the auction and was dressed in a formal suit. Would that be the new dress code? “No chance, it has to be casuals for me,” said Sreejesh.
And when the Indian junior side beat Pakistan in the Junior Asia Cup final on Wednesday, Sreejesh had again become a hero, this time as a coach. “I look forward to coaching,” Sreejesh said after he was hired by Hockey India. The transition he has made has been at the speed of a F1 car. As his post on X reads: Champion’s mandatory selfie, different role but same Josh.
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