‘Became goalkeeper because I didn’t like running at all’: PR Sreejesh shares his journey

In an interview with cricketer Dinesh Karthik on JioCinema’s ‘Get Set Gold’, Sreejesh disclosed why he selected to be a hockey goalkeeper – in order that he doesn’t should run round just like the forwards or defenders. He was pleased doing a lap of the bottom after which simply blocking the pictures below the bar.

“Hockey was not easy because you need to bend, you need to play. That was tough for me. And over that, you need to run. I was an overweight guy. I didn’t like running at all. So, I have seen these goalkeepers in full kit, standing in a corner and kicking the ball. I thought that was pretty funny because they’re not doing anything. They’re not running. They’re just wearing the pad and kicking the ball. So, I thought this was the right position for me because you don’t need to run. You’re a part of the hockey team and you’ll get grace marks. That’s how I became a goalkeeper,” the 36-year-old participant mentioned.

However, Sreejesh mentioned that if you wish to be a goalkeeper in hockey, it’s important to be considerably “crazy” to carry out on the highest degree.

“The goalkeeper has to be a crazy person. Crazy, because you just need to have the guts to stand in front of that ball. The second thing is aggression, you need to be an aggressive person, and those reflexes have to be there. You don’t get much time to just think, ‘Save.’ No, you just need to save it. Then you realize, ‘Okay, I made that save'” Sreejesh mentioned.

The Indian males’s hockey group is headed to Paris in 2024 to construct on the unimaginable Bronze medal end in discipline hockey at Tokyo 2020. T20 World Cup winner Dinesh Karthik spoke to India males’s hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh on JioCinema’s ‘Get Set Gold’, the place the legend opened up on his profession and the way he ended up as a hockey participant.

Sreejesh revealed he needed to get by way of another sports activities earlier than coming throughout hockey.

“I was a shot-put athlete in my school days because I was overweight with a lower height. So, my team was better than me. Then I went for football, but there were a lot of football players already packed on that ground. I tried volleyball, but I was not good enough. Then I saw hockey,” the goalkeeper mentioned.

Even although he began enjoying hockey to attempt to get grace marks on his Kerala State board examination, he fastidiously picked his lane when he realized he did not have the bodily instruments to be an outfield participant.

Sreejesh rewrote Indian hockey historical past, changing into the one males’s participant from India to win the World Games Athlete of the Year (2021). The goalkeeper has gained 16 worldwide medals, together with the Olympic Bronze (2020), two Asian Games Gold medals (2014, 2022), two Commonwealth Games Silver medals (2014, 2022), and 4 Asian Champions Trophy Gold medals (2011, 2016, 2018, 2023), amongst different accomplishments.

Sreejesh is predicted to characterize India in males’s discipline hockey in Paris 2024. India has been seeded with Belgium, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, and Ireland in Group B of the match, as they hope to make a deep run into the medal rounds.