Rourkela: Indian men’s hockey team head coach Craig Fulton has been more than pleased with what he has seen of the Indian players in the Hockey India League. What has impressed him the most, though, is the confidence among them which he believes will help them in the upcoming tournaments.
“The confidence that one gets from a tournament like this is the biggest takeaway. A lot of the Indian players played well for their franchises and the teams have relied on them heavily,” said Fulton during an exclusive interaction with TOI here.
“More importantly, the senior players have taken big responsibility for their franchises. Also, it’s nice to see a lot of the younger players getting a lot of minutes.”
Fulton is also content with the fact that the players have had the chance to work under various foreign coaches during the tournament.
“The different coaches that are on show here have totally different cultures. They have different backgrounds, they have different ways of trying to play the game, which is a strength for us because if we all did the same thing all the time, it would be stale,” said the Team India coach.
“And now, you can see different coaches have different influences on the Indian players to do different things or play them in different positions, which is also really, really good for us.”
As for himself though, he is in a ‘discovery phase’ and is planning for the days ahead and post the FIH Pro League.
“I’m just watching. I understand what we have, what we’re trying to do and then I have a look and see who can fit into our way or style of play. But it’s nice that in April we get to select 60 players to come to camp,” added the former South Africa player.
Among them will certainly be a group of five to six goalkeepers, all of whom will try to cement their place in the Indian team ahead of the World Cup and the Asian Games next year.
“Pawan Malik has been in our group for quite a while and he needs more of an extended time of training and coaching. We obviously have Suraj Karkera and Krishan Bahadur Pathak. There are three U21 goalkeepers including Prince Deep Singh and they will be the focus because of the Junior World Cup coming up later this year. Finally, there’s Mohit who’s gone past the junior age group,” said Fulton sounding hopeful.
The coach, meanwhile, understands the players were overworked last year especially since it was the Olympic year and wants to make sure they get their breaks in order to rest and recover.
“I think that’s why I gave the senior team off for two months and didn’t take them to Europe. Otherwise, they would have had a training camp in December, then the Hockey India League and FIH Pro League,” he said before adding, “It’s about how we manage the programme and the players. We don’t have to play with the same people all the time. We need to build depth so we have more players available at the same standard so they can play while other players rest.”
The coach’s plans will hopefully help the players stay fresh and motivated ahead of the big events coming up next year.