Hockey India announces the appointment of Craig Fulton as the new Chief Coach of the Indian Men’s Hockey Team. The announcement came ahead of the team’s home matches in the FIH Hockey Pro League, starting on March 10th.
Craig Fulton is a 48-year-old South African with almost 25 years of coaching experience. After completing formalities, he will join the team at the earliest.
Fulton has shown excellent results in his previous coaching roles, starting with his stint as the Head Coach of the Irish Men’s Team between 2014 to 2018. During his tenure, the team qualified for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, marking their first Olympic qualification in 100 years. This historic feat won him the FIH Coach of the Year in 2015.
Following this, Fulton was the Assistant Coach with the reigning Olympic Champions Belgium, where they won Gold in Tokyo. He was also part of the Belgian Coaching Staff when the team lifted the World title in 2018, in Bhubaneswar.
Fulton was named Belgium Coach of the Year 2023 after coaching the Belgium club which won the Belgium League. He contributed to the rise of the Belgium national team in world hockey and worked towards taking the team to World No. 3 in 2023, from World No.5 in 2018.
Apart from being an excellent coach, Fulton has an illustrious career as a hockey player, having represented the South African squad with 195 international caps over a span of 10 years playing international hockey. He also played for South Africa in Atlanta Olympics 1996 and Athens Olympics 2004, the World Cup, and Commonwealth Games.
Padma Shri Dr Dilip Tirkey, President, Hockey India, talked about selecting Craig Fulton for the Chief Coach’s role for the Indian Men’s Hockey Team. He expressed his happiness and confidence in Fulton’s experience and work ethic, which should lead to raising the team’s performance in world hockey. He welcomed Craig to India and wished him the best.
Craig Arthur Fulton expressed his honour on his appointment and said, “India has a deep history and legacy of the sport, and I look forward to working with the current team, which has some very promising talent.”