PR Sreejesh
Parattu Raveendran Sreejesh is a rare hockey player from Kerala to represent the country at the Olympics; he is, in fact, one of the first hockey players from the state in a long time to make the cut at the national level.
Before him, Manuel Fredericks and Dinesh Nayak had the honour.
For a long time, Sreejesh had to remain content with being the reserve goalkeeper in the country. Despite his obvious competence under the bar, the presence of Adrian D’Souza and current skipper Bharat Chhetri in the ranks meant Sreejesh had to bide his time. For someone who wanted to be an athlete like everyone else in Kerala and switched to hockey only in class VIII after joining the sports school in Kochi, 30 km from his home, Sreejesh has come a long way.
Born on May 8, 1988, Sreejesh made his international debut with the junior India side in 2004 on the tour to Australia. He was also part of the squad for the 2005 junior World Cup in Rotterdam, where India finished fourth, and was under the bar when India won the Azlan Shah Cup in 2010. However, despite being around for so long, he has always been in the shadows, mainly because of bad luck. When he started, Devesh Chauhan was still the top goalkeeper in the country. He was soon replaced by Adrian, who remained India’s Number 1 goalkeeper for a long time. Besides him, there was first Bharat Chhetri and then Baljit Singh who made the cut ahead of Sreejesh.
The well-built Keralite actually came into his own and proved his worth only last year, and more because of providence. With D’Souza falling out of favour with the national federation for his strong and often contradictory views on selection, Sreejesh got a chance to prove himself and he grabbed it with both hands. So much so that in both the Asian Champions Trophy (Ordos) and the Olympic Qualifiers, he was given the responsibility of guarding the post in the final by Michael Nobbs, and Sreejesh did not let the coach down. At Ordos, he brought off two penalty shootout saves against Pakistan in the final while against France in the qualifiers, he was strong enough to repel every French charge.
His biggest advantage is his fearlessness and the never-say-die attitude which helps him treat every opposition at par, without taking it easy against weaker teams or getting overawed by the stronger ones. In fact, Sreejesh and Chhetri, the two goalkeepers in the team, are mentally the strongest players in the current side.