PR Sreejesh wants to be MS Dhoni of Indian hockey

New Delhi, Dec 6: He has seen the movie 'MS Dhoni, The Untold Story' recently. Having seen the movie based on India's most successful cricket captain, skipper of Indian senior men's hockey team Parattu Rabindran Sreejesh (PR Sreejesh) found resemblance with his own life.

Dhoni is the best judge as far as his retirement is concerned: Sachin

Talking from Mumbai over phone on Monday (Dec 5), Sreejesh said, "Dhoni was a ticket collector at Kharagpur railway station and he rose to such a height from that position. I also come from a farmer's family. After having watched the biopic, I felt that apart from the game, there have been a lot of similarities between the Indian captain and myself."

Sreejesh added,"In my early days I had to face a lot of hardships to become a hockey player."

Initially, Sreejesh had passion for athletics. He used to represent his school and even college in athletics. He was a sprinter in his early days. Initially, the goalkeeper of Indian national hockey team was heavily obstructed from playing by his family.

(Dedicate ACT hockey triumph over Pakistan to Uri attack martyrs: PR Sreejesh)

Sreejesh said,"My family wanted me to concentrate on studies and make a decent career. They also opposed to my travelling with college teams to participate in different athletic meets that took place in other districts of Kerala."

But he did not continue with athletics for long. Sreejesh narrates an interesting story behind the decision to change his discipline, which perhaps is very similar to that of MS Dhoni, the wicketkeeper.

Sreejesh said, “Some boys were going to play a hockey match in my district. They did not have goalkeeper. I was requested to fill the goalkeeper's position. Since I had an experience of playing football and volleyball, I managed well as a hockey goalkeeper too. I was probably 13-years-old that time. From then on, my interest in hockey started developing."

Sreejesh revealed he wants to end his career as MS Dhoni of Indian hockey. The captain said, “Like Dhoni I also want a medal in Olympics which we could not achieve in Rio. I also want to be champion in World Cup as Dhoni has won World Cup in both T20Is and in the ODIs."

OneIndia News