CHENNAI: Immediately after winning the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, neither the Indian men’s hockey team nor their head coach Craig Fulton had much time to celebrate. Within weeks the team was again on the flight to defend their Men’s Asian Champions Trophy in China and the coach was aware of it.
“It was really busy after the Olympics,” Fulton told reporters on the sideline of the 14th Senior National men’s hockey championship in Chennai. “We had the Asian Champions Trophy straight away. So it was exciting to obviously get the success of the medal and then come back. But then we had to get ready to go again straight away. So it was a little different,” he added. He was watching the semifinal matches where Haryana beat UP 3-2 and Odisha beat Manipur 4-2. The final is on Saturday.
Fulton had a close eye on the proceedings in the previous senior nationals as well, however, this time around the purpose of his attendance is more to do with the future of the game in the country. “We are looking to create more depth which has always been the case. We had to qualify when I first arrived and then we had to deliver a performance.
So there wasn’t the time to do it. But there has been a strong under-21 group that played the World Cup and that group has now come back into training camp. Not all of those players but some of them like Rajinder Singh are in the mix. We are taking the India A team away to Holland and Belgium on Sunday. There will be six games that we’ll play there. I’m doing this so that I can get a good idea of a new training squad for 2025,” Fulton explained.
Speaking on the sidelines of the national competition, where spectators witnessed extremely lopsided matches, for example when Tamil Nadu defeated Andaman & Nicobar 43-0 or when Maharashtra defeated Gujarat 30-0, Fulton also advocated for a few changes in the structure of the tournament. “I think the format (of the Senior National tournament) needs to have some kind of thought put into it. Maybe have three sections A, B, or C and then you don’t have those lopsided games with 30/40 goals, which is insane. I think there should be relegation from the A division down and a promotion from the B division up in the same division.
There are 18 teams. So you going to have six teams that have five pool games and a crossover. And so it’s very easily managed and very easily fixed, just has to have the decision to say, well, let’s keep the integrity of the tournament and go competition, and then you don’t have any of those crazy scores. I’m not one to decide that, but it might be my suggestion.” As of now, Fulton has full clarity about his goal in the near and far future and he would be rearing to go. “The objective is to do well in the World Cup and Asian Games. And Ultimately qualify for LA 2028 and push through and try and win a gold medal,” he signed off.