In the end, all nine members unanimously voted for van Ass to go.
The recommendation will be forwarded to Sports Authority of India (SAI) by HI. And when - not if, it now seems - the final decision on his ouster is taken, van Ass would become the fourth foreign coach to be shown the door since Hockey India took control of the administration of the game in 2009.
The point that went against the Dutch coach was that the committee did not take too kindly to van Ass not submitting his report on the World Hockey Semi-Finals and preferring to stay put at home in the Netherlands instead of joining the ongoing national camp in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh that began on July 16. Simply put, the dug-out spat and the subsequent ego battle between van Ass and HI president, Narinder Batra, has left India searching for a new coach before the Olympics in August next. It has been learnt that High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans, a fellow Dutchman and himself a coach of repute, will now double up as coach till Rio.
"Discipline is something that is applicable to players as well as coaches," HI committee chief Harbinder Singh, a former Olympian, told TOI after the meeting. He added: "If he had some problem or difficulty in doing his job as a coach, he should have told us. Instead, he preferred not to return to India. He also decided not to attend the camp. This went against him.
"Looking into the recent developments, we have given our recommendation and the Hockey India and SAI will take the final decision," Harbinder gave the official line, and contrary to specula line, and contrary to speculation, declined that the decision to remove van Ass was already taken before the meeting. "We examined all the details before taking the decision, which was a unanimous one. All members agreed that this is the only way out," he said. None of the other members of the committee - BP Govinda, V Baskaran, AB Subbaiah, Thoiba Singh, RP Singh, Asunta Lakra and Jasjeet Kaur - voted contrary to the final recommendation.
Committee member and former Olympian V Baskaran said that the recent developments showed that van Ass was not interested in continuing in his job. "I have been a coach in the past. As a professional coach, be it the national team or a club team, it's your primary duty to submit your report once the tournament gets over. He has not done that so far for the Hockey World League Semi-Finals. He was supposed to join the national camp on July 16 but he did not join. He's not taking phone calls either. This shows that he's not interested in continuing as chief coach of the nation al team," Baskaran deduced.
"It is not proper on his "It is not proper on his part to run away after part to run away after such a silly incident. If that incident was the reason, he would have left immediately after the semifinals against Malaysia. Why wait till the competition to get over? He's a coward. If he was a professional coach, he would have come back," Baskaran added. Baskaran, a former national coach, had himself been sacked on a couple of occasions during the erstwhile IHF regime, and seemed unperturbed by the idea of a reputed - and highly paid -coach being sacked at such a critical juncture.
If sacked, he joins a select club of axed foreign coaches by the hockey administration. Jose Brasa of Spain, Michael Nobbs of Australia and compatriot Terry Walsh have all faced the music earlier.
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