Craig Fulton announced as head coach of Indian men's hockey team

Hockey India, on Friday, announced Craig Fulton as the chief coach of the men's team, ending more than a month's speculations on who will take charge of the men in blue. This appointment comes just before the home games of the FIH Hockey Pro League.

Craig Fulton will replace Australian Graham Reid, who tendered his resignation after the team's disappointing 2023 Hockey World cup campaign in Odisha.

The 48-year-old South African, with nearly 25 years of coaching experience, will join the team at the earliest upon completing formalities.

Fulton grabbed many eyeballs with a stint with the Irish Men's Team as the Head Coach between 2014 to 2018 when the team qualified for the Rio Olympic Games 2016. This was the Irish team's first Olympic qualification in 100 years. This historic feat also won him the FIH Coach of the Year in 2015.

He was named Belgium Coach of the Year 2023 after coaching the club which won the Belgium League. He has also been a part of the Belgium national team's rise in world hockey, taking the team to World No 3 in 2023 from World No.5 in 2018.

Fulton was also the assistant coach of the Belgium team which bagged the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He was also part of the Belgian coaching staff when they won the 2018 World Cup.

As a hockey player, Craig Fulton represented South Africa in 195 international games with a career spanning over 10 years and played in the 1996 Atlanta and 2004 Athens Olympics along with World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

Talking about selecting Craig Arthur Fulton for the Indian Men's Hockey Team Chief Coach's role, Dilip Tirkey said, "I am very pleased to state that Hockey India has finalized Craig Fulton for the Chief Coach's role with the Indian Men's Hockey team. I have had the honor of playing against him and now I look forward to closely working with him in this new phase for the Men's Hockey team. He comes with tremendous experience in coaching and his work ethic induces confidence of raising the team's performance in world hockey. I welcome Craig to India and wish him the best."

Speaking on his appointment, Craig Arthur Fulton said, “It is an honor to be appointed in the role of Chief Coach for the Indian Men’s Hockey team. India has a deep history and legacy of the sport and I look forward to working to take this forward with the current team which has some very promising talent.”