New Indian Express: Sreejesh looking to mentor TN side

Ashok Venugopal

Former India captain and custodian PR Sreejesh is happy to be back playing for Tamil Nadu in the 9th Hockey India Senior Men’s Nationals to be played in Chennai from January 7 to 20.

CHENNAI: Former India captain and custodian PR Sreejesh is happy to be back playing for Tamil Nadu in the 9th Hockey India Senior Men’s Nationals to be played in Chennai from January 7 to 20.

Having slowly put World Cup setback behind him, the veteran wants to start afresh. “It is a good feeling to be back playing for Tamil Nadu, because it has been almost 3 to 4 years since I last played for them,’’ said Sreejesh.

There were talks that there was objection from Kerala. But Sreejesh dismissed the same. “There is no issue from Kerala because I am a registered player for Tamil Nadu. I do not know from where the ‘objection’ issue started. The reason I stopped playing for Tamil Nadu was because of national duties,” he said.

Tamil Nadu, who are in Pool G, will be led by N Senthil Kumar. “I will be playing for Tamil Nadu for the first three games and then will be going to Switzerland for an FIH event. I would like to mentor the boys and ensure that we start off the tournament well.”

Sreejesh & Co could not capitalise on home conditions during the World Cup in Bhubaneswar, where India bowed out in the quarters. Sreejesh felt the setback was certainly not because of lack of effort from India’s part. “You can’t say that we played badly. That day (quarters), they (Netherlands) got better and more chances than us and capitalised. That doesn’t mean that we did not play well.”

Despite a creditable show in the group phase, India’s old problems came back to haunt them as they missed out on the big stage yet again. Sreejesh conceded that they failed to step up as a unit when the situation demanded. “Ours is a team event, where one player’s poor performance can affect the team. It was a bad day for us. It was a long tournament, we lacked a bit of experience and we did not combine well. With more experience, we will be one of the best teams in the world,’’ he opined.

The 32-year-old is happy with the idea of grooming youngsters but stressed the importance of having seniors. “You cannot bring in youngsters just for the sake of it. When you play big matches, there is a lot of pressure. The seniors will come in handy as their experience is valuable.”