Indian hockey team gets a new Sardar

NEW DELHI: "Normally, captains lead their teams from the front, but I am different. I will stand behind them and give support," a smiling PR Sreejesh said after being named the skipper of the Indian men's hockey team here on Tuesday.
The experienced goalkeeper, who will replace veteran midfielder and long-standing skipper Sardar Singh, is the first hockey player from Kerala to lead the national team at the Olympics. Hockey India has named Karnataka's SV Sunil as Sreejesh's deputy.
"Captaincy has come as a surprise. In 2012, Bharat Chettri was the captain and also the goalkeeper. In hockey, you cannot put all the burden on the captain all 11 players have their responsibilities. On the field I always concentrate on my performance. No one will appreciate if I let in 10 goals being a captain. The aim is to save goals and to ensure my performance doesn't dip," Sreejesh said.
Under Sreejesh's leadership last month, the men in blue won a historic silver in the Champions Trophy, eventually losing to Australia in a penalty shoot-out. Sreejesh believes the change in captaincy will reduce the burden on Sardar and will give more responsibility to young players.
"I was handed the captaincy in Champions Trophy because Sardar was not in the team. This change worked well. Sardar was properly feeling the burden of captaincy, trying to control everything, guiding the youngsters and leading the team. In such situations, youngsters sometimes don't contribute. Now that I am the captain, I have four players - Sardar, Raghunath, Sunil and Manpreet - to play the role of captain in the team. This will help me motivate the players and coordinate well with everyone," Sreejesh said.
Hockey India's decision to change the leader was a little surprising, but the fact is that Sardar's form has dropped a bit in recent times. The federation may also have taken into account the point that Sardar has recently attracted interest in the media for wrong reasons. A British hockey player of Indian origin has alleged that the "midfielder had raped and harassed her on false promise of marriage". The Punjab police, though, has given Sardar a clean chit in the case.
On how the veteran is handling the recent developments, Sreejesh said: "Sardar is an experienced player and is mature enough to understand the situation. Our aim is to free him from extra burden and allow him to perform freely. And to keep him away from any distraction. The good thing about Sardar is that he never takes his personal worries into the field. It's tough not to think about something that the whole nation is talking about."
Speaking about the team's preparation, Sreejesh said players come up with good performances when there is no pressure. "We have now reached the final point where we have to work on areas like penalty corners, penalty variations among others. When the team leaves for Madrid we will be ready for Rio. There is a big difference between London Olympics and Rio Olympics.London was a disaster for us, a difficult situation to overcome. We have seven members from London squad and we have to pass on the experience to the youngsters," he pointed.
The team will leave for Madrid on July 24 and play two matches before heading to Rio. Birendra Lakra is not in the team due to injury and Sreejesh said he will miss the experienced defender in Rio.Squad: PR Sreejesh (goalkeeper & C), Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinderpal Singh, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, VR Raghunath, SK Uthappa, Danish Mujtaba, Devinder Walmiki, SV Sunil, Akashdeep Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah.