KOLKATA: It’s been just two and a half weeks since Craig Fulton started working with the Indian men’s hockey team and the one thing that has really impressed him so far is the camaraderie among the players.
The team bonding has been spoken of a number of times in the past and the new coach has also been mighty pleased with it.
“The camaraderie among the players has been impressive. They really get on well with each other. They spend a lot of time together. They train hard together and they just want to play. So that’s a great trait to have. They are skillful and they have got a lot of experience,” said Fulton during a virtual press conference on Tuesday.
Fulton now wants to use this and get the best out of them.
“I just want to light that flame inside them and get them really excited about the possibilities of the future – both short and long term. But everyone needs to understand we need to really compete against each other to get the best out of the best. Improve yourself and then improve the team,” added the South African.
They will have enough chances to improve in the coming months as they prepare for the all–important Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8.
“The priority is to qualify for the Paris Olympics by winning the Asian Games. We will be using the Pro League matches, the four-nation tournament (in Spain) and the Asian Champions Trophy (in Chennai) to really set us up so that we can win with the Asian Games and directly qualify for the Olympics,” said Fulton from SAI in Bengaluru from the national camp is going on the moment.
Besides qualifying for the 2024 Olympics, his immediate plan also includes making the team No. 1 in Asia consistently. It won’t be easy and the coach is well aware of that.
“We are a good team but not the best team at the moment. We have got some work to do. At the same time, we are a difficult opponent to play. So, not many teams will like playing us,” added the coach during the hour-long interaction.
There are of course a number of areas where the team needs to improve. For starters, they will have to consistently play better outside India since most of the major upcoming tournaments – World Cups and Olympics — will be outside the country. To make sure that happens, it is quite likely that the team will be going on tours more often.
“A lot of the top teams are coming out of Europe consistently, so we would like to play against all of them and also outside India,” said the coach.
Fulton, meanwhile, admitted that he has had talks with Hockey India in order to get a mental conditioning coach for the team in near future but wants to go slow as far as introducing a new style is concerned. With the players having been under Graham Reid for quite a while, it seems to be a good idea to not hurry things and give the squad time to adapt to a new style of play.
