Top 70 P. R. Sreejesh Quotes

Audiences give us extra energy, they play the role of 12th man in the team.

The best part of any game is that we forget all that happens outside the field when we play, it is a game and we give our best.

Well, I come from a poor family. My father is a farmer. When I started playing, I wasn’t privileged enough to afford hockey pads and a kit, that was out of my reach.

I was under Adrian D’Souza, then under Bharat Chettri. The things that I learnt under them are helping me in my career now.

Now if I go back home with an Olympic medal, the reaction of my family will give me immense satisfaction.

Your goal is to win a medal at the Olympics. The players who go into their second Olympics like me, know the agony of missing out on a medal.

Before the injury hockey was everything in my life. Now I know even if I am out of hockey, there are other important things in life. I am confident, calmer and wiser now.

I’ve set myself a target of four books a month.

You cannot play at your best and beat a top team one day and drop your level the next day.

Our shoes weather a lot of blows and sometimes a wrong movement can cause them to come apart in half.

Hockey has changed drastically over the years. Indian greats then played on grass. Now we play on astro-turf.

In the Olympics we are facing the toughest opponents in the world so that shows that you do have the chance to beat any team at any given day.

The motto to work hard and get back that India jersey never died in me.

Normally, a goalkeeper has to be a perfect man. All my mistakes are visible so I have to keep my concentration all the time.

Playing against Pakistan automatically motivates our team to perform well.

The multi-captaincy system helps me to concentrate and focus on my responsibility. In my case, I can concentrate on my goalkeeping, and others on their responsibilities allotted to them like scoring goals, defending and things like that.

There is a lot of scope for improvement but as we enter the home stretch for the Olympic preparations, we know the biggest challenge for us is to remain consistent with our performances.

Even one player’s performance can affect the entire team.

The first few years were quite hard for me. It took time for me to understand what exactly is international hockey.

Goalkeepers are like wine, the longer you keep it, the better it tastes.

It was the toughest phase of my life. I suffered almost a career-ending injury. Getting through the first phase of my injury was tough.

Of course I catch up on the odd Malayalam and Tamil movie on streaming platforms once a while.

Olympics is a place where you can be easily distracted to a lot of things and it will seem like a magic world.

International matches are competitive and challenging, even for a normal player.

I believe Indian hockey itself is going through a major phase of transformation. We set our sight on winning the gold medal at the Asian Games. We have achieved that.

I always believe in trying something extra-ordinary and fighting against myself, gives me the biggest confidence boost.

When I started my career I used to concede a lot of goals but still every one had faith in me, they kept motivating me.

In inter-state tournaments, they used to make fun of my gear. It didn’t bother me. I had my body and my biggest weapon was my mind.

Today I am a hero because of the saves. But If I had failed in saving the goal-bound shots in the Asiad finals, I would have been called a traitor.

Hockey is not an individual game. It is rather a team game.

Books changed my perception about the sacrifices we make as athletes.

I never really expected the captaincy, honestly. It’s a great honour to lead India at the Olympics.

I have a three-month-old daughter and I want to spend as much time with her as I can.

Psychology is not a place where you get results overnight.

When I prepare for any tournament, I just feel that I want to give my best in the tournament as I may not get the next opportunity and I don’t want to regret it after this tournament.

When I got injured, when I did the surgery, I made a promise to myself: I will wear the India jersey again.

I know what was happening to me during the 2012 London Olympics. I was in a fantasy world. You look this side, Usain Bolt is walking, Serena Williams is sitting next to you and having food. So that is really a fantasy world for a youngster.

We are Asian champions, but we cannot take chances.

Being in the thick of things is a good thing.

The quality of players at the domestic level is very low when they come to the Indian camp. From that level to reach the international level, they will have to do lot of hard work at the Indian camp.

My role is just about sharing my experiences with the younger guys in the team. It is just like how parents guide their kids or a teacher guides his students.

I like working out in the morning.

No matter who the captain is, on the hockey pitch it’s the goalkeeper who is leading the side because we have the best view of the field.

When I was young, I didn’t know who India’s goalkeeper was then.

In the morning, I try to read self-help books and books on meditation.

We have a very good history in hockey and when I look back into my own career, I know I do have a lot of FIH medals, I have medals almost in every tournament but not one in World Cup or Olympics.

Pakistan are definitely our main rivals. We do respect the players but on the field, we push ourselves even harder to get that win. I am sure they do the same against us. Victory against them has a special meaning.

It’s going to be a long, tough journey to the Olympics.

It’s difficult to love a goalkeeper. He is invisible, and is only in the limelight when he makes a blunder.

Being a father brings with it a lot of responsibilities, just like being a goalkeeper does.

We are maintaining a 25-member squad for Rio Games so that has kept a healthy competition within the team. If there are any injuries, we have immediate replacements.

When I came to the national camp, I wore my pads to get the feel. I started to kick the ball, then stood in the pole and it felt positive. Since then, I am just focusing on making myself better than before.

If I’ve been disciplined through the week, on Sunday I treat myself to mutton biryani. I can have up to one kg of it for a meal.

When you are stepping on the field as a hockey player you are part of a dream and being a team member you have your responsibilities, you have your duties.

Experience. I have that in abundance and that is what I can share.

So being a senior player, being a goalkeeper, being a team member, I think saving the ball is my first main priority.

We have an edge over the Asian countries because we are playing European and Indian style of hockey, but we need to perform consistently.

When you’re in the hockey team, you’re treated like a VIP. There are people around you looking after you, making sure you get 7-8 hours of undisturbed sleep every day.

Even when following a strict training regimen, you’re allowed a couple of cheat meals.

The captain is not in total command of the match. The man who is possessing the ball at a given time is the captain.

To build my core strength, I do push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, on-the-spot running with bands, and individual runs.

People in my state, Kerala, have started playing hockey, which is very pleasing to see.

We cannot say that Asian Champions Trophy is that easy a contest.

When you are with your team, you get the right motivation to work hard every day and get back to the field quickly.

I had to teach myself to walk and run again during rehabilitation.

We are better placed than Pakistan as we have been playing against top teams around the world. Pakistan on the other hand failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in their history.

I am up for challenges.

It’s important that I stay positive in my messages during matches because the rest of the team is following the tone and tension in my voice. Nothing in my voice should let them down.

A match against Pakistan is never an easy prospect – especially for goalkeepers in a penalty shootout. We can either become heroes or zeroes.

You can’t win tournaments just with youngsters. In important matches we need experience.