India hockey coach Craig Fulton interview: ‘We can do something special, but we are not the best team in the world, not there yet’

Indian men’s hockey team head coach Craig Fulton spends his weekends playing golf. And the weekdays – every waking second of it – are spent plotting the path to the podium at the Paris Olympics in July-August.

After playing an influential role in the rise of Ireland and Belgium, the South African is now tasked with ensuring India’s growth story continues after the team won the bronze at the Tokyo Games.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Fulton talks about his efforts to understand the country’s culture, including the caste system, explains why he roped in renowned sports psychologist Paddy Upton, who will accompany the team for the Olympics, introducing changes to India’s playing style and applying finishing touches to Paris preparations by playing test series in Australia and the Netherlands.

Excerpts:

From the time you’ve been here, what are your takeaways in terms of the culture and settling in?

A week after I arrived, we did an informal session. I wanted to find out players’ individual stories and where they came from. So, we put up a map and they showed me where they came from. Then we started to connect who comes from where and you have completely different environments… isolated pockets and then a big block in the middle where a majority of the players come from but the language and the dialects are different. I had to (do this) because I didn’t have an understanding of who comes from where and what the influences are in those areas. Understand the caste system as well, getting a sense of what that resembles and how that works internally. Just fact-finding.

Indian Men’s Hockey Team captain Harmanpreet Singh with the team’s head coach Craig Fulton after a press conference ahead of the Asian Champions Trophy 2023, at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, in Chennai. (PTI)

You are trying to bring in control whereas India have thrived in chaos…

So, if we had an empty stadium and we played that game (against Australia), I think we’d have a different result. In the sense of what happens to the players, what’s expected of them, what is the next emotional decision they make because we are trying to play harder, faster. What happens to the expectations when we get into the opponent’s half? It goes through the roof. That’s why it’s such a beautiful spectacle. But at the same time, if you’re out of control in that space and another team works on that, how does it help you? Nothing to take away from the players and the passion of the fans.

How do India build from Tokyo bronze?

2012 – India finished 12th. 2016, 8th. So, where are we going – 12th, 8th, 3rd. Now, what’s everyone expecting? How many years did that take? Now we are sitting in a 12-year cycle. The only real correlation I can see between Tokyo and where we are now is that 13 or 14 players in the squad that went for Tokyo (Olympics) are still with us. You are retaining more players going into another block. But then you also do the same comparison of who is in the top 3 or top 4. And they have more. So, everyone in the Olympic year does more. It’s a wonderful challenge.

So from my side, how do you get behind the Indian team without putting them on a pedestal? They potentially can do something special but they are not the best team in the world at the moment. We are not there yet. We know what we are, where we are. We know the gap between us and other teams. But I also feel if you take Australia as ranked 6 in the world then good luck.

You’ve been focussing on the defensive structures but do you think it curbs the attacking instincts of the midfielders?

It’s all about balance. If you have an intrinsically attacking mindset where you know the high risk is high reward and you play on that all the time, you come up against a team that can counterbalance your high risk and turn your high risk into their reward. By that, I mean, if you can’t defend but you go and attack, but you can’t score on the day, but you also can’t defend on the day… so, your attack isn’t as good as their defence, but your defence isn’t as good as their attack, it’s a double whammy. You lose. So you can’t break them down but you are not able to keep your house in order, you concede because of the shape you are in on attack. So you are almost looking to defend while attacking. That’s a new concept in hockey because if you open yourself and we are going ahead, look at what happens in some of the goals against us in the last few months.

Any particular reason why India will be playing test matches in Australia and the Netherlands in the build-up to the Olympics?

We felt that because the Olympics is outside and the other FIH tournaments are outside India, we need to get used to playing outside India. If you look at the next 2-4 years, everything is outside so you better get used to doing it.

Have the players been comfortable opening up to a sports psychologist and will Paddy Upton be with the team for the Paris Olympics?

I thought if he’s working with the best cricketers in the world and they are Indian legends, (then) why not? The first objective was, who would be able to tell a story that resonates with the team. So anything to do with the 2011 World Cup… Who was involved, who can tell a story? Only Paddy can talk about it, I can’t. And how do you link the two to try and rewrite or make history with this group going forward? This is the way to do it. That was my plan. How that was done and he shared that story with the team and that remains internal. He will be travelling to Paris with the team. We will see him in Australia (in April) and in the whole build-up through to Paris.

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