Men’s hockey: Sreejesh’s saves were nothing short of miracle, we can win gold at Paris Olympics, says Dhanraj Pillay

Dhanraj Pillay praises Indian hockey team's historic performance, believes they can win Olympic gold after 44 years.

Dhanraj Pillay had tears of heartbreak when India missed out on a potential semifinal berth at Sydney Olympics conceding a goal against Poland in the dying moments after leading for 69 minutes. That was closest that Dhanraj, an all-time hockey great had come to an Olympic medal.

On August 4, as India doggedly defended for 42 minutes with 9 men on the outfield and the special man named PR Sreejesh, who keeps raising the "bar", the former centre forward couldn't hold back his tears watching his team make it to the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics.

"I couldn't stop my tears. I have never seen such performance in many years and now I am convinced that this team can bring us the Olympic gold after 44 years," the former India skipper said.

As soon as Rajkumar Pal scored the winning goal in the shoot-off, an emotional Dhanraj, glued to the TV at home, jumped in joy.

"Tears started falling from my eyes automatically. I saw such a match for the first time after the Sydney Olympics 2000. Sreejesh was standing like a wall in front of the goalpost and the number of saves he made is nothing short of a miracle," Dhanraj, who has played four Olympics and four World Cups, told PTI Bhasha .

"I had goosebumps while watching the match. I was so happy that I started shouting loudly after India's fourth goal in the penalty shootout. I was told that people in my society apartment would come out but I was so happy that I could not control,” said the veteran, who never ever got a chance to play even a semi-final .

Eight times champion India won the last Olympic gold in Moscow in 1980 and after 41 years Indian team brought a bronze medal from Tokyo games in 2020.