South African Craig Fulton has been named as India’s new men’s coach, replacing Graham Reid.
Fulton, 48, has nearly 25 years of coaching experience under his belt as he takes on one of the toughest international jobs in world hockey. He becomes the ninth foreign coach of the India men’s side.
Fulton said: “It is an honour 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.”
Fulton has plenty of accolades behind him ahead of his India role, a main aim this year being the Asian Games and Paris 2024 Olympic qualification.
Fulton started his career as player coach with Chelmsford HC before taking Pembroke Wanderers to titles in Ireland. He climbed the coaching ladder to take the helm with Ireland men at Rio 2016 and joined Shane McLeod’s coaching staff with Belgium in 2018.
He was then named Belgium coach of the year as KHC Dragons won the Belgium League domestic league title in 2020/21.
Fulton played 195 international matches over a 10-year span with South Africa.
On Friday, Australian Reid wished Fulton and the men’s team well on social media.
He said: “Although the recent World Cup didn’t go as planned, I still fully believe in this group’s abilities to accomplish more. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such an amazing team.”
FYI Craig Fulton was player -coach not Cheltenham HC as stated but at at Chelmsford Hockey Club from 1999 to 2005 where he took the the Men’s Ist XI to 5th place in the National league,