Sreejesh Stays On: India’s Junior Men Keep Their Mentor for the Home Junior World Cup

Some appointments are paperwork. This one’s a statement.

PR Sreejesh, the wall Indian hockey leaned on for the best part of two decades, is staying on as mentor of the junior men’s team for the Junior World Cup on home soil this December. Chennai and Madurai host it from 10 to 20 December, and India go in as the team with a title to defend and a crowd that expects them to defend it.

Why the mentor role actually matters at junior level

Senior teams don’t really need mentors. They need coaches, analysts and someone to pick the XI. Junior teams are different. Half the job with an under-21 group is teaching teenagers how a tournament feels — the dead days, the shootout nerves, the game you have to win ugly. Sreejesh has lived every one of those days, most of them in goal, where you see the whole thing coming at you.

India’s juniors won the last Junior World Cup. Keeping the same voice in the room for the defence of it, at home, is the opposite of a gamble. It’s continuity, and it’s the kind of small decision federations usually get wrong by overthinking.

The pressure is the point

A home Junior World Cup cuts both ways. The support in Chennai and Madurai will be loud, and loud is fuel, right up until the first game you don’t win. Then it’s weight. Having a mentor who’s played in front of those crowds, and lost in front of them too, is worth more in that fortnight than any training drill.

For our money, India’s juniors were already among the favourites. With Sreejesh confirmed in the group, they’re the team nobody wants in a shootout. Some things don’t change. India’s seniors had their own big week too — Haryana’s national title — and the Champions Trophy starts with three games on Tuesday.