P R Sreejesh
When India won the medal in hockey after 41 years, there was another reason for the Malayalees to rejoice with the victory of the country in it. The goalie in the Indian team was PR Sreejesh from Ernakulam East Kambalam. When the Indian team won the medal, it was the first Olympic medal in 49 years to reach Kerala through Sreejesh. Manuel Frederick, the then Indian goalie in hockey at the 1972 Olympics, brought the first Olympic medal to Kerala.
Indian fans applaud the Indian team and Sreejesh who won the Olympics medal. Sreejesh, who played a pivotal role in the Indian team’s victory, was lauded by many, including Sachin Tendulkar. Congratulations to all. The experience of coming back from a previous defeat was going through the mind of the star this time.
India has not won a single medal in hockey since 1980, India’s premier sport at the Olympics. The Indian team, which is always going to the Olympics with a heavy load of expectations, is coming back disappointed. There are a lot of people in it to criticize them. In it, Sreejesh narrates the story of his time as part of the Indian team. The Indian team qualified for the 2012 London Olympics after failing to even qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But the Indian team did not perform as well as expected. India returned from London as the last of the 12 teams to take part in the tournament.
The Indian team was returning from the Olympics when the Indian team attended a function attended by the Union Minister in Delhi. At the event, he publicly criticized the Indian hockey players for their poor performance in London. The minister said the 12th Indian team, which had 12 teams, would have been ranked 20th if 20 teams had participated.
Sreejesh said it was a great insult to the Indian team members, who at the time were so humiliated that they could not even lift their heads, and the desire for an Olympic medal was on the wane.
Sreejesh and the Indian team’s efforts to win an Olympic medal in Vashi have been on the rise. Despite being knocked out in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics, the effort has continued and the Indian team, which has been advancing with achievements, has been on the podium in Tokyo for more than five years and has applied relief medicine over the deep wounds that followed the 2012 defeat.
Despite being on the winning side, Sreejesh and his teammates have a clear understanding that this is not the end, but a start to the great achievements yet to be made in front of Indian hockey. A few days away from the celebration of the victory in Tokyo, after which Sreejesh and his team are back down to reap the benefits.
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