FIH Hockey League will be a real test for goalies Krishna, Suraj: Sreejesh

Indian hockey legend PR Sreejesh said on Friday that the tournament to truly judge the performance of the Indian goalkeepers Krishna Bahadur Pathak and Suraj Karkera will be the FIH Hockey Pro League which will start in November this year.

Sreejesh, who called it quits from international level hockey after India's second successive bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, said that even though India secured the Asian Champions Trophy title, their fifth, the tournament is not a right one to judge the performance of the two goalies.

"See, the Asian Champions Trophy is not the right platform where you know you analyse goalkeepers. When it comes to Asian Hockey competitively we are the dominating team. I am just waiting for this Pro League to start where I can see how these guys are going to perform because Pathak and Suraj are experienced goalkeepers. They have freedom to perform in a better way because they don't have the shadow of Sree bhai with them. There will be a healthy fight going to happen between them. So, I believe that this freedom is going to be their plus point," said Sreejesh to ANI.

The sixth season of the FIH Hockey Pro League promises to be more exciting than ever before with the tournament set to take place from November 30 this year to June 29 next year. Between February 15 to 25 next year, some of the competition's matches will take place in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.

Sreejesh, who was appointed as the coach of the Indian men's junior team, said that he looks forward to developing some fine goalkeepers and helping the team do better in the next junior World Cup in 2025.

On the Hockey India League (HIL) being expanded to women, with the newly-revived competition set to feature six women's teams, Sreejesh said, "It is great because women's hockey is doing wonders. They have done some wonderful things in the past 10 years. They did not qualify in the last Olympic Games. We got a big pool of talented players. For them also, it is a great opportunity to learn things plus players facing a big crowd out there playing hockey. It is a great opportunity for them to step into the national team."

HIL is set to return this year, as announced officially on Friday after a long break of seven years.

The HIL 2024-25 will be held from the last week of December 2024 to the first week of February 2025, in a window sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament will witness the participation of 8 men's teams and 6 women's teams.