India’s hockey coach Paul Van Ass is destined to be given the sack following his war of words with Hockey India chief Narinder Batra after a special committee recommended his removal on Friday.
At a four hour long committee meeting headed by Olympian Harbinder Singh and comprising of former players and Hockey India officials, the body decided to not continue his stint with the men’s national team that only began five months back.
The ball is now in Hockey India’s court to make the final decision official with Batra slated to meet India’s High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans today to discuss the way forward. later, the two are expected to meet Sports Authority of India (SAI) officials.
The decision also ends the uncertainty that surrounded Van Ass’ future with the Dutchman claiming he was sacked by Batra on July 10 and then via an E-mail by Oltmans on July 13, a statement that was denied by Batra in his media interactions since.
“We gave our recommendation to Hockey India. Hockey India and Sports Authority of India will now take the final call,” said Harbiner after the meeting at Hockey India’s headquarters.
However, he caved on further pressing. “He has not yet submitted his report on Hockey World league semifinals. He is not taking our calls, nor responding to our mails. The tickets were sent to him (to join India’s training camp in Shilaroo) but he lied (that) he didn’t receive any tickets. “
“Under such circumstances, the committee has worked under the assumption that Paul won’t return. There is no question of him returning. But Hockey India will take the final decision based on our report.”
This leaves eight times Olympic gold medallists without a coach for the Rio event with a year to go. At this juncture, it is believed that Oltmans will take charge of the team until the quadrennial event.
Harbinder clarified that way forward as far as the coaching personnel is concerned wasn’t discussed and was outside the mandate of the meeting. “We are not mandated to talk about it. We have given our suggestion to Hockey India and it is confidential.”
Oltmans has been part of Indian hockey for three years now and is aware of the functioning of the team having led the team after Terry Walsh’s departure until Van Ass’ arrival.
In this period, he managed the reigns of the team during the Champions Trophy event in Bhubaneswar where the team finished a respectable fourth beating Netherlands and Belgium on the way.
Some players have even asked for Oltmans to be appointed on an interim basis rather than go for a new coach - Indian or foreign.
The committee was officially formed to discuss the teams’ showing at the HWl. They finished fourth but were hammered for six by eventual champions Australia (2-6), four by Belgium (0-4) and finished with a miserable 5-1 loss to Great Britain.
The committee felt that despite the poor show, it didn’t call for drastic changes in the team - as had happened after the bottom place finish at the 2012 london Olympics.
“There is one year still left for the Olympics. We discussed what steps need to to be taken from here on to produce a good showing in the Olympics,” Harbinder said.
The meeting was attended by B P Govinda, A B Subbaiah, V Bhaskaran, Thoiba Singh, R P Singh, Asunta lakra Jasjeet Kaur and Hockey India CEO Elena Norman with Harbinder chairing it.
Van Ass joins Jose Brasa, Michael Nobbs, Terry Walsh to become the fourth coach to be leaving the Indian shores within a gap of five years after Hockey India took over in 2009.