PR Sreejesh wants to emulate Rahul Dravid's footsteps as coach after retirement

Sreejesh retired from international hockey after India won the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics 2024.

Indian Hockey legend PR Sreejesh wants to emulate Rahul Dravid’s footsteps when it comes to shaping his career as a coach.

Sreejesh retired from international hockey after India won the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics 2024. He ended his career with back-to-back Olympic medals as he also clinched bronze three years ago in Tokyo.

After retiring, Sreejesh expressed his desire to coach the Indian junior team. Much like Dravid, he wants to develop a bunch of players for the future before moving on to coach the national team.

Notably, Dravid took up the head coach roles for India U-19 and India ‘A’ teams following his retirement from international cricket. He also served the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as director before being appointed the head coach of the senior Indian men’s cricket team in November 2021.

"I want to become a coach. That was always my plan but now there is a question of when. After retirement, family comes first. I need to talk with them if they are OK with this. Now you have to listen to your wife a little bit," Sreejesh told PTI.

"The way I wanted is start with the juniors, and Rahul Dravid is an example. It's like you develop a bunch of players, get them into the senior team and let them follow you," he said.

"I start this year, next in 2025, we have the junior World Cup and in another two years, the senior team will be playing the World Cup. So may be, by 2028, I can produce 20 or 40 players and by 2029, I can have 15-20 players into the senior team and by 2030 almost like 30-35 players in the senior side.

"And 2032, I will be ready for the chief coach's position. If India gets to host the 2036 Olympic Games, I want to be the India coach," Sreejesh added.

Under Dravid’s guidance, Team India won the Asia Cup 2024 and reached the final of the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup last year but failed to cross final hurdles, losing to Australia on both occasions.

However, Dravid’s coaching tenure ended with an ICC trophy as Rohit Sharma and his men clinched the T20 World Cup 2024 title in the Caribbean in June.