The India coach will keep his eye on the revamped Hockey India League to build a larger pool of players

“It’s quite nice to be back in New Delhi. This is where it all started,” beamed Craig Fulton as he settled into a sofa of a posh hotel lobby on Monday.

Life has come a full circle for the 49-year-old. It was here in the national capital that the South African made his international debut as a freckled 21-year-old at the 1995 Indira Gandhi Gold Cup, also scoring a goal.

Twenty-nine years since, Fulton is returning to the iconic Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, only this time as the chief coach of the Indian men’s hockey team, who will take on reigning world champions Germany in a two-Test series on Wednesday and Thursday. “Nobody forgets their first cap,” he adds.

Having guided India to a successive Olympic podium for the first time in 52 years, Fulton delivered for exactly what he had been brought in for, especially after the debacle of the 2023 World Cup where India failed to reach even the quarter-finals. He took charge of the low-on-confidence team, giving them direction that won India successive gold medals at both the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games last year.

Fulton failed his first major test in 2024 miserably when India were whitewashed 0-5 in the away tour of Down Under before redeeming himself with the Paris bronze, also helping India beat Australia at the Olympics – for the first time in 52 years at the Games.

India, then, travelled to China last month where they reinforced their pre-eminent position as the best team in Asia, which was Fulton’s first target as India coach. Now, having achieved his targets of the No.1 team in Asia and Olympic podium, Fulton has already started planning for Los Angeles 2028.

“Now, the main target is to broaden the base (player pool) for the training squad, get the right players in, who will take Indian hockey forward with the 2026 World Cup and Asian Games being the priority, and then hopefully qualify for Los Angeles 2028 directly and have a good preparation period going into LA,” said Fulton.

Keeping in the mind the age of some senior players who might stop after either the 2026 World Cup or 2028 Olympics, Fulton is keeping busy in identifying a virtual U-25 team who will likely play in the next two Olympic cycles which is why intends to take U-25 boys to the tour of Europe in November-December and give the seniors much-deserved rest.

“Our focus is to be the best we can be. It’s a new four-year block so we need to open it up with a look on broadening the squad for the future. We have players that are sitting in that age group. We’re looking to bring in another squad of 14-15 players who are just above the U-21 class but not as experienced to join the senior squad,” said Fulton.

“The other players are already training in camp because it takes a long time to learn the training because it’s heavy. So, if you’re a younger player who hasn’t done a lot of strength training and then trained as hard, it takes 6-8 months to get into that rhythm, and then you understand, and then you can get stronger and stronger. So, we want players that are match ready so that there’s no downtime to get them up to speed to our level. So if you transition senior players out, they need to be at that level and match ready as soon as you need them.”

While Fulton is currently focussed on the two matches against Germany, it will be the revamped Hockey India League (HIL) that he will keep his eye on to build a larger pool of players, who this time around will be playing with and against the best players from around the world.

“I should be there from the beginning to watch and observe our younger players. This is all about selection for us, to pick that training group and the India A team. Hopefully, everyone has a great opportunity and gets good minutes in their teams and can put their best foot forward,” he said.

Pressure talk

The India job is much different to any of his previous stints, with the legacy of the game in India, the spotlight it always in under, constant expectation of results and questions after failures. It took him a bit of time, but Fulton is accustomed to the Indian way where he feels “the pressure is never off”. And with him and his team delivering, expectations and pressures have only grown.

“The expectations are bigger now. It shows we’re on track. We got back-to-back (Olympic) medals. The nice thing is when you look at the team that played Australia in Tokyo (1-7 loss) to the next Olympics, to beat them (3-2), there’s progression and that’s a really positive way to look at it,” said Fulton.

“But expectation brings focus. I don’t like to call it pressure, I like to call it focus. Because when you have expectations, you need focus.”

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