cricket-mad India:

The hockey legend who stood tall in cricket-mad India.

The minute India won a bronze decoration in hockey at Paris Olympics, the players burst into wild celebrations.

But PR Sreejesh unobtrusively strolled to one conclusion of the field and bowed down in front of the goalpost.

His domestic for nearly two decades.

He will miss that domestic, but India will miss him indeed more. The goalkeeper, who played his final worldwide coordinate on Thursday, takes off an famous bequest behind him.

The “Wall of India”, as he is famously know, play a pivotal part in India’s platform wrap up. His group were up 2-1 and Spain were battling difficult for an equalizer but Sreejesh foiled their endeavors.

Particularly in the biting the dust minutes of the match.

The instinctual and the thoughtful jumps he is know for were on full show.

His affect on the diversion can be catch on from the truth that the Spaniards earned nine punishment corners, but couldn’t change over any.

Sreejesh and his guard group put their bodies on the line to secure their lead until the end.

The previous Indian captain can too be credit with bringing India into dispute for a decoration. The knock-out coordinate against Extraordinary Britain went into a punishment shootout and once once more it was down to the Divider to ensure his group.

He did precisely that with two magnificent saves.

He was in tears after India misplaced the semi-final to Germany as he knew the tricky gold award was out of his get a handle on, but he rapidly turned his consideration to the bronze decoration coordinate. On Thursday, he was crying once more – but this time in joy.

The hockey legend who stood tall in cricket-mad India:

Indians cry with him and social media is overflow with tributes to the man who carried the country’s trusts and dreams for about two decades.

India is know to be cricket insane and players from other sports regularly don’t get the same consideration, acclaim or cash. And for a hockey goalkeeper, it’s indeed harder to be acknowledge.

“It’s troublesome to adore a goalkeeper. He is undetectable, and is as it were in the spotlight when he makes a goof. When I was youthful, I didn’t know who India’s goalkeeper was then,” he told the Indian Express in 2021.

Sreejesh never chased consideration or fame; he fair preferred to get on with the work. It was this demeanor that kept him going in spite of a bitter-sweet debut.

He had as of now made waves in the junior circuit with his speedy reflexes and capacity to judge a ball’s direction in nano seconds.

But his make a big appearance in the senior group in 2006 at the South Asian Diversions didn’t go that well. He performed well in the competition but missed a pivotal spare in the last against India’s arch-rival Pakistan. The feedback that taken after was a soak learning bend for him.

The following few a long time is intense as he do not get a changeless put in the group. Indian hockey moreover went through a awful stage amid this period, with the group coming up short to indeed qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Sreejesh proceeded to work difficult:

But Sreejesh proceeded to work difficult on his aptitudes and his minute of recovery came in 2011. It was the last of the Champions Trophy and Pakistan was once once more the restricting side.

He looked much more confident and made two vital punishment spares to win the amusement for India.

Sreejesh is push into the spotlight promptly after the coordinate. He voyage with the group to the London Olympics in 2012 but India finished their campaign without a medal.

Despite the team’s terrible execution, the overseer of the Indian goalpost proceeded to perform well. His following sparkling minute came when he was once more confronted with Pakistan in the 2014 Asian Recreations last. He spared two punishments to conclusion India’s 16-year gold award dry spell at the Games.

But if there is one minute that wholes up his character, coarseness and assurance, it has to be the bronze decoration coordinate against Holland in the Hockey World Alliance in 2015.

He was gravely harmed, his thighs were secured in ice packs, his thumb was near to broken and his bear was secured in defensive surgical tapes.

He kidded that he looked like a mummy as he took his position at the goalpost. But behind all the torment and the funniness was a resolve to win a award for India in a major universal competition after more than three decades. His staggering spares in the punishment shootout made a difference India win the coordinate against a prevalent team.

His put as a legend in Indian hockey was presently cemented. He was before long inquired to lead the group at the Rio Olympics. They didn’t win a decoration but come to the quarter-final – bettering their execution from London.

But he never let victory get to his head, remaining humble and congenial and living his life without the trappings of fabulousness as a rule related with wear stars. This charmed him to his colleagues and moreover Indians at huge.

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