Tokyo Olympics hero Sreejesh turns attention to World Cup success, mulls writing book

Express News Service

KOCHI: PR Sreejesh is kept busy these days with felicitation ceremonies arranged for the bronze medal-winning goalkeeper across various parts of his native Kerala.

If it is Ernakulam one day, it is Kozhikode on another. As for the 33-year-old, who achieved his greatest dream of winning an Olympic medal, the exploits in Tokyo are behind him and he is already looking ahead.

From planning to write a book about his experiences in the sport in order to help aspiring youngsters, to taking up coaching after his playing days, Sreejesh continues to drown himself in the sport that he dearly loves.  

“Yes, there is a plan to write a book where I can share my experiences of playing hockey. During these Covid times where one can’t move around a lot, I had a lot of time to think about doing something like writing a book. Hopefully, something like that can help youngsters, because they may go through challenges which I came across and maybe it can help them. Especially those who want to take up hockey or are already playing. It can be of some help to them when it comes to the things they may come across in the sport. A book is definitely on the cards,” said Sreejesh during a media interaction on Wednesday.

Having won that elusive Olympic medal, Sreejesh has now set the 2023 World Cup as the next big target in his illustrious career.

“Of course, winning an Olympic medal was the ultimate goal for me. And I’ve had a feel of most medals in my career but I’m missing a World Cup and we will be hosting the competition. That is going to be our prime target. But before that, we have the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. And the Asian Games is a big platform for us to book a ticket for the Paris Olympics and so we don’t want to miss that chance,” he said.

At his age, Sreejesh realises that every other question coming his way could be about his retirement and how India will cope after he leaves the stage.

“I’m just taking it year by year at the moment and going from one tournament to another. It is true that at some point a transition will have to happen but we have some exciting young players coming through. They are the ones who push me to be at my best as well. And even after I retire, I want to be involved with the team in some coaching capacity so that I can share my experiences and help the players coming through,” he said.