Hockey India today announced the appointment of Craig Arthur Fulton of South Africa as the new Chief Coach of the Indian Men Hockey Team. The announcement was made, ahead of the home matches of Indian team in the FIH Hockey Pro League starting in Rourkela from 10 March 2023.

The 48-year-old Fulton, with nearly 25 years of coaching experience, will join the team at the earliest upon completing formalities. He started his international coaching career as the Head Coach of the Ireland Mens Team from 2014 to 2018.

Under his guidance, Ireland qualified for the Rio Olympic Games 2016. This was the first Olympic qualification of the Ireland team in 100 years. This historic feat also won him the FIH Coach of the Year in 2015.

Following this, he worked as the Assistant Coach with the reigning Olympic Champions Belgium, where the Belgium team won the gold medal in Tokyo. He was also part of the Belgian Coaching Staff when the team lifted the World title in 2018, in Bhubaneswar.

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

In his illustrious career as a hockey player with the South African squad, Fulton has 195 international caps over a span of 10 years playing international hockey. He has played for his home team South Africa at Atlanta Olympics 1996 and Athens Olympics 2004. He has also played at the World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

Talking about selecting Fulton as the Chief Coach of the Indian Men Team, Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey said, "I have had the honour of playing against him and now I look forward to closely working with him in this new phase for the Men Hockey team.

He comes with tremendous experience in coaching and his work ethics induces confidence of raising the performance of the team in world hockey. I welcome Craig to India and wish him the best."

Speaking on the occasion, Fulton said, “It is an honour to be appointed in the role of Chief Coach for the Indian Men Hockey team. India has a deep history and legacy of the sport and I look forward to work to taking this forward with the current team which has some very promising talent.”

Fulton will succeed Graham Reid, who stepped down following the dismal performance of the Indian team at the last FIH World Cup where host India finished joint ninth. It may be noted here that Hockey India had created a surprise four days ago by naming David John and BJ Kariappa as coaches of the Indian Men Team for the ensuing Pro League matches.
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PHOTO: File picture of Craig Fulton, the new Head Coach of the Indian Men Hockey Team.