Indian Hockey team goalkeeper and Olympic medalist P.R. Sreejesh was with Amitabh Bachchan on KBC 13, where he shared about the joy of winning the Olympic medal for India after 41 years. He is one of the special guests who played in the Olympics for India.
“We have been waiting for 41 years for this medal. Personally, I’ve been playing hockey for 21 years. I started playing hockey in 2000 and since then, I’ve grown up listening to how our elders, grandparents had made it big in hockey, we had 8 gold medals in hockey. So, we started playing because of the history behind the game.” Sreejesh shared his relationship with hockey.
“After that what happened was that hockey was played on Astro Turf, the game was changed and our downfall began,” Sreejesh said while talking about Astro Turf. When Amitabh Bachchan asked more about Astro Turf he said, “Yes, a lot, Sir. Because Astro Turf is an artificial grass where we put water and we play. Playing on the natural grass, the effort and game style is totally different as opposed to playing on Astro Turf.”
He further said, “Earlier, all the players only played on the grass ground, trained on it and even played internationally on the grass ground. Nowadays what has happened is that the kids start playing on the grass field and later have to play hockey on the Astro turf which takes a lot of time. There is a different type of training that one undergoes to play on the Astro Turf, the hockey stick used is also different.”
The show will be telecasted on September 17 in ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati 13’s ‘Shaandaar Shukravaar’.
