Hockey India retires No. 16 jersey in honour of retired goalkeeper PR Sreejesh after Paris Olympics
Hockey India has announced that it is retiring the No. 16 jersey as a tribute to goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who retired from the sport after India’s Paris Olympics campaign.
Published : Aug 14, 2024 13:35 IST , CHENNAI - 3 MINS READ
Paris Olympics bronze medallist hockey player PR Sreejesh. | Photo Credit: PTI
Indian sports has never been big on gestures but PR Sreejesh’s retirement function here was marked by several of them, all grand and unprecedented.
For the first time, a hockey player formally called time on his career and was officially celebrated by the federation.
Hockey India, on Wednesday, permanently retired his jersey No. 16 – from the senior men’s team. “We will retain it in the juniors so that he can create many more Sreejesh,” HI secretary general Bhola Nath Singh said.
Having announced his decision before the Paris Olympics, the 36-year-old goalkeeper had already set the tone for his departure as a player.
On Wednesday, he was officially named as coach of the junior men’s team – the camp will start on October 1 with the first outing likely to be Sultan of Johor Cup From October 19-26 – and mentor for goalkeepers in the senior side.
The entire Indian team and support staff turned up in specially-created Sreejesh jerseys to honour him, in the presence of his entire family.
Teammates, coaches and former players shared their memories from the time together in the dressing room, all against a giant screen that had images from his two-decade-long career flanking the words ‘God of Modern Indian Hockey’.
“I have never seen Sree take rest when he is on the ground. He has motivated more than one generation of players. But it is his hard work and focus that stands out. When we started, we were 17-18 in the world but even then, his target was for India to be No. 1. It is that focus which has brought him this far,” former captain Sardar Singh revealed.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh shared his message before the bronze medal match against Spain.
“He said, ‘Machan, the game the Indian team has shown in this tournament and the love we have received from everyone, that is a huge thing. This will be our last chance to lift Indian hockey again and go back a winner.’
“I remember telling him, ‘ye aapka last match hai’ and he replied, ‘khelunga bhi waise hi’. And we all know what he did on the field,” an emotional Harman said.
Manpreet Singh, the other four-time Olympian in the side, expressed the team’s confidence in Sreejesh during matches.
ALSO READ: Sreejesh says goodbye: An emotional farewell for the “God of Modern Indian Hockey”
“Like an elder brother, he would always motivate and keep yelling from behind, every mistake was instantly pointed out, in amazingly sweet words,” he declared, inviting laughter from everyone.
“I remember during the 2014 Asian Games, he told us, ‘If you guys take the game to a shoot-out, I will get you the win’. And he did exactly that in the final against Pakistan. We could play freely upfront because we knew Sree was there at the back even if we made a mistake,” he added.
Coach Harendra Singh, who scouted Sreejesh as a kid and brought him into the national fold for the first time, declared he was best placed to be a coach, not just because he was a great player but “the best human being ever, the best motivator, the best student of the game I have seen”.