PR Sreejesh has spoken out after Hockey India chose not to renew his contract as Indian Junior Men’s Hockey Team chief coach. He says the federation preferred a foreign coach over him, despite a podium finish in every tournament he coached.

Hockey India appointed Sreejesh as junior team coach in August 2024, immediately after he retired from international hockey. He posted a statement on his Twitter account on Tuesday. His contract expired on December 21, 2025, following the FIH Junior World Cup in Chennai. He reapplied when Hockey India advertised the position. Hockey India did not select him.

“It seems like my coaching career comes to an end after 1.5 years, during which we played 5 tournaments and secured 5 podium finishes, including a Junior World Cup bronze medal,” Sreejesh wrote. “I have heard about coaches getting fired after bad performances. But this is the first time I am experiencing being removed to make way for a foreign coach.”

Sreejesh said the Hockey India President told him that Craig Fulton prefers a foreign head coach for the junior side. Fulton believes it will help develop Indian hockey from junior level through to senior level.

He also cited a meeting with Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on March 7, 2026. “I was told, “Sreejesh, we need coaches like you to step up and lead our country as we prepare for 2036.” However, Hockey India continues to place its trust in foreign coaches over Indian ones across all four teams.”

A Record That Made the Case for Him

Across his 18 months in charge, Sreejesh led India to podium finishes in all four medal tournaments he entered. The Junior Asia Cup title in November 2024 was the standout result of his first year. In 28 games across five tournaments, India won 19, a win rate of just under 68 percent. The Junior World Cup bronze medal match against Argentina captured what his side was capable of at their best. Trailing 2-0 with 11 minutes left, India scored four times through Ankit Pal (49’), Manmeet Singh (52’), Shardanand Tiwari (57’), and Anmol Ekka (58’) to complete a remarkable turnaround on home soil in Chennai.

Sreejesh’s Record as Junior Men’s Coach

*Four Nations was a preparatory tournament, not a medal event.

Hockey India is yet to announce who will take charge of the junior men’s team. Until that name is confirmed, the question Sreejesh has raised publicly remains unanswered.

Editor’s Note

Sreejesh’s record speaks for itself. Five tournaments, five podiums, including a Junior World Cup bronze on home soil. That is not a record you usually walk away from without a strong reason.

The Programme That Should Have Included Him

Last year, we wrote about Hockey India’s coaching mentorship programme. Eight FIH Level 3 certified Indian coaches shadowed Craig Fulton and Harendra Singh during national camps. The idea was to build an Indian coaching pipeline and reduce dependence on foreign coaches. It was a promising step. But here is the thing. Sreejesh was arguably the most obvious candidate for something like that programme. A recently retired player freshly into coaching, working alongside Fulton or Harendra during national camps, would have been the ideal candidate for that initiative. Whether that ever happened, we do not know. If it did not, that is a question about how seriously Hockey India takes its own programmes.

Choosing a foreign coach over Sreejesh despite that programme existing raises an obvious question about whether any of it means anything.

But this is not entirely straightforward either.

Hockey coaching has changed considerably over the past decade. The game is faster, more structured, and tactically more demanding than it was even ten years ago. At the top level, coaches are not expected to do everything for the players. International players are expected to read the game, make decisions under pressure. They also take responsibility on the field without waiting to be told. The coach sets the framework. The players execute within it and solve problems as they arise.

A Question Worth Asking

Which makes Sreejesh’s comments from 2018 worth revisiting. When Marijne was coaching the senior men’s side, Sreejesh was among the players who complained about his methods. Sreejesh said at the time: “He can show me where I have to walk… He can’t ask me to draw a picture and say he will paint it. He should have an idea of how we are going to play and we can help him make it beautiful.” The message was clear: the coach draws the picture first. Players would then help colour it in.

That view sits directly against where modern coaching has gone. The coach no longer draws the picture alone. Players at international level are expected to bring their own ideas to the canvas. Only those inside the camp would know whether Sreejesh the coach moved on from what Sreejesh the player believed. But it is a fair question to ask.

We also do not know what coaching qualifications Sreejesh holds. FIH has a structured certification programme. The eight coaches in Hockey India’s mentorship programme all hold FIH Level 3 certification. Whether Sreejesh has gone through any part of that pathway is not public information. Results matter, but so does the framework around them.

Sreejesh himself said it best in 2018: “We should develop our own coaches, that’s for sure. We need to give them more experience and technologies.” Sreejesh was right then. Hockey India has not built a system where that development happens in a structured way.

That is not entirely Hockey India’s failure. And it is not entirely Sreejesh’s either.

Appeal

If this story made you think, there is more where that came from. The Sreejesh question is not going away, and neither are the bigger questions around how Indian hockey develops its own. Please subscribe to the Give Me Hockey newsletter and get these stories in your inbox before anyone else.