We have to recreate our Asia dominance: Fulton

Indian men's hockey team chief coach Craig Fulton endured a frustrating time in Europe, watching his wards lose seven successive games in the FIH Pro League in June. It meant they wasted a golden chance to qualify for the 2026 World Cup from the elite nine-team event, in the end just about avoiding relegation by finishing eighth.

- Sandip Sikdar

But Fulton isn’t too worried by the “disappointing” results. Belgium's 2018 World Cup and 2021 Olympic gold-winning coach Shane McLeod recently told HT: “India play really well in tournaments of consequence”.

One of them is the Asia Cup, to be held in Rajgir, Bihar from August 29-September 7 whose winner will qualify for the World Cup in Belgium and Netherlands. If India miss out, they will have to go through the qualifiers in February-March.

“The last time India won the Asia Cup was in 2017, so that hasn't been done. We need to rectify that. Everyone is playing for that direct (World Cup) spot. We're 100% all-in. This is the priority of the year for us,” Fulton told HT from Bengaluru.

“We are training really hard. We know it’s not going to be easy, but at the same time we've had a lot of success in the past. We've got to recreate it and get on the front foot.”