Goalpost his friend and practice his mantra, Sreejesh leaves after reviving Indian hockey

Sreejesh leaves after reviving Indian hockey (Picture Courtesy: X-@UjwalKS)

PR Sreejesh celebrating India’s bronze-winning win against in Spain in Paris sitting on top of the goalpost. The same was seen in Tokyo. It will remain the most enduring image in the modern history of Indian hockey. May be, it will inspire children in different parts of India to play the game.

The goalpost is something that Sreejesh considers to be a ‘friend’. He says that he talks to that inanimate object when the ball in not in his half. Many times, he uses expletives while ‘talking’ to the goalpost. It’s fitting, then, that world hockey’s most remarkable goalkeeper of modern times bid adieu to the game sitting on top of the goalpost after helping India secure a second successive Olympic bronze.

When he started with the senior national team in 2006, Indian hockey had slipped into an abyss. The eight-time Olympic champions failed to make the cut in 2008 and finished bottom of the group in 2012. From there, to claim back-to-back bronze medals is a phenomenal turnaround and if there is one player worthy of a lion’s share of the credit, it is the goalkeeper from Kerala. Not without reason did all his teammates dedicate the Paris bronze to Sreejesh.

There is no point in reiterating that on countless occasions over the last many years the player born in a family of farmers brought India back from the brink of disaster. Even experts have lost count of the number of miraculous saves he made at decisive moments. In Paris and in Tokyo, Sreejesh saved certain goals to keep India alive, showing an extraordinary combination of courage, reflexes, anticipation and skills.

Ask him how he did those and he starts with a smile. “Goalkeeping is very easy. You just have to be there at the right place at the right time. That’s it. You just stay in front of your goal, between the ball and the goalpost. It’s simple,” he had said a few months ago. On a serious note, he added that it came with practice. “I have forgotten how many thousand saves I made during practice every week.”

Once he did that day in and day out, year after year, it became part of his body routine. “At times, I realise after the save that I have made the save. Your brain sends signals to the limbs. That’s when you react. The more saves you make, the more your brain works and after a point, it starts happening almost automatically. That’s called instinct and it comes only with training.”

As India finds solace from the hockey bronze in what has largely been a disheartening Paris 2024 campaign so far, the image of Sreejesh perched atop the goalpost will remain etched in the memory of sports fans. The 36-year-old with over 320 caps leaves with his head held high and on a high. How many sportspersons get this opportunity? Well, those who work hard enough, do sometimes.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz