India men coach Fulton suggests three-tier structure with promotion-relegation in Nationals for more competition
Indian men’s hockey team head coach Craig Fulton, who watched the semifinals of the 14th Hockey India Senior Men National Championship 2024 at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium on Friday, advocated for increased competitiveness in the tournament.
He proposed a three-tier structure with promotion and relegation.
“The format needs to have some kind of thought put into it. (It needs) to maybe have three sections: A, B, C. Then you don’t have those lopsided games with 30-40 goals. It’s just insane, you know. But I understand there’s a certificate that the guys get, but that’s still possible. I think there should be relegation from the A division down and a promotion from the B division up and the same with the C division. That’s the way forward,” said Fulton, who recently guided India to the Asian Champions trophy.
The results at the 2024 Senior Nationals’ 45-game league stage was a stark contrast to its knockout stage. While the former was dominated by one-sided affairs, with 15 double-digit blowouts and 14 five-goal margins, the latter has had much closer contests.
Only one match has been decided by a margin of four goals or more.
“There are 18 teams, so you’re going to have six teams – five pool games and a crossover. So, it can be very easily managed and fixed. It just has to have a decision to say, well, let’s keep the integrity of the tournament and go competition for competition’s sake. And then you don’t have any of those crazy scores. I’m not one to decide that, but this is my suggestion,” added the South African.
As Indian hockey looks ahead to the next Olympic cycle, the coach wants to create more depth for the national team with several important tournaments in between.
“We’re just looking to create more depth. That’s always been (the case), but we had to qualify when we first arrived and then deliver a performance. So it wasn’t the time to do it. But there has been a strong under-21 group that played the last World Cup and that group has now come back into training camps,” the coach opined.
Fulton will lead India A to Netherlands and Belgium for six games this Sunday. Several juniors will get a chance to impress him as India aims for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic gold.
“The India A tour of Holland and Belgium will give me a good idea of a new training squad for 2025. I mean the objective is to do well in the World Cup and Asian Games and qualify for LA and then push through and try and win a gold in LA,” Fulton explained.
The 50-year-old is eager to see the revamped Hockey India League in December, which he will use to prepare for India’s FIH Pro League squad in February.
“We’ll watch all of them through the Hockey India Ligue (HIL) and then we choose a squad because there’s not much time between HIL and the Pro League. HIL will give several youngsters to compete with the international players, which is always a good thing for the national setup,” Fulton concluded.