{"id":16046,"date":"2026-05-15T04:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/2026\/05\/15\/jude-felix-criticises-hockey-india-for-removing-pr-sreejesh-after-just-15-months\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:34:26","slug":"jude-felix-criticises-hockey-india-for-removing-pr-sreejesh-after-just-15-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/?p=16046","title":{"rendered":"Jude Felix criticises Hockey India for removing PR Sreejesh after just 15 months"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Wrong to remove Sreejesh in just 15 months: Felix (Image: X)<\/p>\n

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KOLKATA: Former India hockey captain Jude Felix came down hard on Hockey India, criticising its handling of PR Sreejesh<\/a>\u2019s exit and calling it \u201cwrong\u201d to remove him barely 15 months into the role.Felix, who took charge of the junior men\u2019s team in 2017, was himself removed in 2019 after less than two years despite guiding India to gold at the Youth Olympic qualifiers, bronze at the 2017 Sultan of Johor Cup and silver in the 2018 edition.Speaking to TOI Felix said, \u201cIf Hockey India selected Sreejesh, it means they believed he was good enough. He may not have had experience, but that comes with time. If you appoint someone, you can\u2019t remove him in 15 months. That is wrong.\u201dThe former India assistant coach added, \u201cFor someone who has contributed so much, especially in winning two Olympic bronze medals, I would have used him differently. I would have built a factory of goalkeepers under him. Goalkeeping is a crucial position, and he could have developed a whole generation. Instead, they made him coach and then removed him.\u201dHockey India, however, said it had offered Sreejesh the role of development team coach, identified as key to preparations for LA 2028 and the next Olympic cycle.\u201cThis would have furthered his experience and exposure as a coach. However, he did not accept this position despite being asked to reconsider the decision,\u201d the federation said.Felix also criticised the removal of P Shanmugam from the Indian women\u2019s team set-up before questioning Hockey India\u2019s reliance on foreign coaches and their failure at the grassroots level, echoing concerns raised by Sreejesh in a social media post on Tuesday.\u201cHave foreign coaches gone into the system and built it? No. They\u2019ve worked at the surface, taken salaries, and left,\u201d Felix said.He also pointed out that India have not bettered their fifth-place finish at the World Cup since 1994, underlining what he called a lack of progress despite heavy investment.Felix, however, admitted that \u201cwe do not have enough top-level, quality Indian coaches\u201d.\u201cYou can say we\u2019ve produced 600 coaches through certification programmes. You can even say 1,600. But show me 60 top coaches who understand individual skills, team structure, corrections and player development,\u201d asked the Dronacharya awardee.\u201cThe problem starts at the grassroots. The coaching levels are very average, and that reflects at every level.\u201dAccording to Felix, the solution lies in having the right people to select coaches and implementing a structured, uniform coaching system across the country.\u201cIt will take time, but it\u2019s possible,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cCoaching is about building a complete player \u2014 a forward who can tackle like a defender and a defender who can attack. Total hockey.\u201dIn the end, Felix maintained that unless grassroots coaching, long-term planning and accountability are prioritised, Indian hockey will continue to struggle despite strong resources.<\/div>\n


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Wrong to remove Sreejesh in just 15 months: Felix (Image: X) KOLKATA: Former India hockey captain Jude Felix came down hard on Hockey India, criticising its handling of PR Sreejesh\u2019s exit and calling it \u201cwrong\u201d to remove him barely 15 months into the role.Felix, who took charge of the junior men\u2019s team in 2017, was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saharanews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}