“The moment it went to a shoot-off, I knew we were winning,” said Craig Fulton of India’s famous quarterfinal win with 10 men against Great Britain at Paris 2024.
We had last met, briefly, ahead of the medal ceremony in Paris, and that was when it was decided that we would have a detailed conversation on the campaign once things settled down. With coach Fulton coming to India for the PM’s felicitation and more, it was tough to get him to sit down for a detailed chat. Finally, we managed to get time out once he reached Dublin and had a breather at home. The chat started with Fulton giving me a tour of his jersey room on zoom- the Belgium jersey, the South Africa jersey and, of course, the India jersey, which will now be added to the cabinet.
“So, has it sunk in?” I asked to get things going. Fulton, always calm and understated, was quick off the blocks. “Maybe not yet with all the celebrations going on in India,” he said. “Now that I am back home, I will take stock of what we did and analyse the campaign.”
The most obvious question to ask was about the Great Britain game, and India playing with 10 men for 43 minutes. Was it the most difficult game of his coaching career?
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Fulton was silent for a second before he started. “We had prepared for everything,” he said. “A yellow card, playing without a goalkeeper, injuries, but not for a red card, which would leave us with 10 men for 43 minutes. When they went up to check, I said on the microphone to my colleagues that they are checking for a red and we need to be ready. When you are a man down, it is impossible to keep possession for long. You can do it for 40 seconds to a minute and then you are forced to fall back deep and defend to win the ball back. The good thing is we scored and they had to open up. While it was unfortunate that we weren’t able to hold on to the goal, we played a solid defensive game and managed to take the game to where we wanted, to a shoot-off.”
Before I could ask anything more, Fulton had started again. “The moment it went to a shoot-off, I knew we are winning,” he said. “I told the boys as much. I said there is only one winner from here. We had done the hard things and you don’t lose from there after working that hard. I told Sree you will save two and we will score three and it is our game. I am glad the boys did it.”
‘So, was beating Australia the other highpoint?’ I asked.
“Yes, because this was something we hadn’t done for years,” said Fulton. “And it was their best team and their full team, so beating them was good. It should have been 4-1 and not 3-1 at one point. One of our goals was disallowed and they managed to get one back. But we deserved to win the game. We played really well and were deserving winners. It was good to win it after losing 0-5 in the five-Test series in Australia.
“Many things in that series were not up to the mark – video referrals or lack of them, umpiring et cetera, and I told the boys then that these results wouldn’t matter when we got to Paris. But that series helped us a lot in identifying who all put their hands up in tough situations and who all had the strength to do so. Beating Australia was a just reward for the hard work.”
‘So where does Indian hockey go from here?’ was my final question. ‘Now that we have back-to-back medals at the Olympics, things do look good. And Bholanath Singh has confirmed to RevSportz that Fulton will be around for LA 28.’
“Yes, I will be around,” replied Fulton. “We need to study this campaign and take our lessons. First, we have the Asian Champions Trophy in September. A different set of boys will play and they are training in Bengaluru. This team is busy with the celebrations and after the 25th-26th, we need to get them back to the camp and start afresh. It is a tricky tournament and an important one and we are defending champions. The focus next will be the World Cup, and thereafter LA. We have time, but yes, I will be around for sure.”
With family asking him to join them for lunch, it was time for me to let him go. We had already spoken for over 30 minutes and it had been fascinating.
The full interview or edited parts of it will be telecast on RevSportz at 12 noon on August 18.
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