Times of India: Multiple captaincy helps team to perform better: Sreejesh

BENGALURU: Indian men’s hockey team skipper PR Sreejesh on Saturday said the system of multiple captaincy helps a side to perform better because it allows players to concentrate on their respective responsibilities.

“The multi captaincy system helps me to concentrate and focus on my responsibility. In my case, I can concentrate on my goalkeeping, and others on their responsibilities allotted to them like scoring goals, defending and things like that,” Sreejesh said at the Sports Authority of India here.

“Hockey is not an individual game. It is rather a team game. The captain is not in total command of the match. The man who is possessing the ball at a given time is the captain,” he said.

Sreejesh said rotational policy helps the team to develop core group of players because it gives players enough exposure to be match fit ahead of any big event.

“When we are preparing our team, we are looking at bigger events including Commonwealth Games. Defender Birendra Lakra unfortunately had to miss Rio Olympics due to injury, but we had ready replacements – Harmanpreet Singh and Surender Kumar. They did better because they got the exposure of playing ahead of Olympics. That’s the magic of rotational system,” he said.

Asked about the quarter-final loss in Rio Olympics, Sreejesh said it was a disappointing feeling, but the team has already overcome the setback and was preparing for the next big event coming up in Malayasia.

“It was a disappointing exit from Rio Olympics. We did well to reach to the quarter-finals. We have already overcome that feeling and are preparing for the Asian Champions Trophy to be played in Malaysia next week,” Sreejesh said.