“It’s fairly good to be again in New Delhi. That is the place it began,” beamed Craig Fulton as he settled into a settee of a fancy lodge foyer on Monday.
Life has come a full circle for the 49-year-old. It was right here within the nationwide capital that the South African made his worldwide debut as a freckled 21-year-old on the 1995 Indira Gandhi Gold Cup, additionally scoring a purpose.
Twenty-nine years since, Fulton is returning to the enduring Main Dhyan Chand Nationwide Stadium, solely this time because the chief coach of the Indian males’s hockey crew, who will tackle reigning world champions Germany in a two-Check sequence on Wednesday and Thursday. “No person forgets their first cap,” he provides.
Having guided India to a successive Olympic podium for the primary time in 52 years, Fulton delivered for precisely what he had been introduced in for, particularly after the debacle of the 2023 World Cup the place India failed to achieve even the quarter-finals. He took cost of the low-on-confidence crew, giving them course that received India successive gold medals at each the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Video games final yr.
Fulton failed his first main take a look at in 2024 miserably when India have been whitewashed 0-5 within the away tour of Down Underneath earlier than redeeming himself with the Paris bronze, additionally serving to India beat Australia on the Olympics – for the primary time in 52 years on the Video games.
India, then, travelled to China final month the place they strengthened their pre-eminent place as the very best crew in Asia, which was Fulton’s first goal as India coach. Now, having achieved his targets of the No.1 crew in Asia and Olympic podium, Fulton has already began planning for Los Angeles 2028.
“Now, the principle goal is to broaden the bottom (participant pool) for the coaching squad, get the proper gamers in, who will take Indian hockey ahead with the 2026 World Cup and Asian Video games being the precedence, after which hopefully qualify for Los Angeles 2028 immediately and have an excellent preparation interval going into LA,” mentioned Fulton.
Holding within the thoughts the age of some senior gamers who would possibly cease after both the 2026 World Cup or 2028 Olympics, Fulton is maintaining busy in figuring out a digital U-25 crew who will doubtless play within the subsequent two Olympic cycles which is why intends to take U-25 boys to the tour of Europe in November-December and provides the seniors much-deserved relaxation.
“Our focus is to be the very best we might be. It’s a brand new four-year block so we have to open it up with a glance on broadening the squad for the longer term. We now have gamers which are sitting in that age group. We’re wanting to herald one other squad of 14-15 gamers who’re simply above the U-21 class however not as skilled to hitch the senior squad,” mentioned Fulton.
“The opposite gamers are already coaching in camp as a result of it takes a very long time to be taught the coaching as a result of it’s heavy. So, in the event you’re a youthful participant who hasn’t accomplished plenty of power coaching after which skilled as arduous, it takes 6-8 months to get into that rhythm, and then you definitely perceive, after which you may get stronger and stronger. So, we wish gamers which are match prepared in order that there’s no downtime to get them on top of things to our stage. So in the event you transition senior gamers out, they must be at that stage and match prepared as quickly as you want them.”
Whereas Fulton is presently focussed on the 2 matches towards Germany, will probably be the revamped Hockey India League (HIL) that he’ll hold his eye on to construct a bigger pool of gamers, who this time round can be enjoying with and towards the very best gamers from around the globe.
“I must be there from the start to observe and observe our youthful gamers. That is all about choice for us, to select that coaching group and the India A crew. Hopefully, everybody has an excellent alternative and will get good minutes of their groups and might put their finest foot ahead,” he mentioned.
Stress speak
The India job is way completely different to any of his earlier stints, with the legacy of the sport in India, the highlight it all the time in underneath, fixed expectation of outcomes and questions after failures. It took him a little bit of time, however Fulton is accustomed to the Indian manner the place he feels “the strain isn’t off”. And with him and his crew delivering, expectations and pressures have solely grown.
“The expectations are larger now. It reveals we’re on observe. We received back-to-back (Olympic) medals. The great factor is if you take a look at the crew that performed Australia in Tokyo (1-7 loss) to the following Olympics, to beat them (3-2), there’s development and that’s a very optimistic manner to have a look at it,” mentioned Fulton.
“However expectation brings focus. I don’t wish to name it strain, I wish to name it focus. As a result of when you could have expectations, you want focus.”
