The welcome news of women team's qualification for Rio 2016 Olympics may meet an equally disastrous development on the men's side, seriously denting, once again, India's chances of returning to the Games' podium since 1980.
India may remain indebted to former coach Terry Walsh for booking a Rio berth after the Asian Games gold - because what has followed doesn't instill much confidence. A miffed Walsh left and now his successor, Paul van Ass, may follow suit - leaving India's Olympic preparations in the lurch.
The Dutchman hasn't met the deadline for submitting his report on the FIH Hockey World League (HWL) semi-finals and has also not returned back for the fitness camp, and what's even more worrying is that he hasn't bothered intimating his employers Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India (HI) about it.
There are various reasons floating in free water - the most disturbing of which is that Van Ass may quit his job over an alleged spat with HI President Narinder Batra.
At the HWL semis last month, India finished fourth, but it was the team's performance in the quarter-final against Malaysia, where India managed a nervous 2-1 win, that didn't please the HI boss - prompting him to reportedly invade the pitch as the players cooled off after the match.
According to reports, Batra told the players that their performance was not up to mark, which forced Van Ass to intervene and ask his boss to leave the team alone. An allegedly fuming president then left the pitch retorting to the coach's intervention.
But Batra denies those reports, though he maintains that Van Ass has not intimated why he is not back in India until now from his vacation at home in the Netherlands.
"They [newspapers] can report what they want, but I had no spat [with Van Ass]," Batra told IBNLive Sports. "But I can confirm that Van Ass hasn't submitted his report on the World League, which he had to do by July 15. Also he was supposed to join the team's fitness camp on the 17th, but that has also not happened.
"We [Hockey India] have no intimation from his side about the delay, but that's his choice," the President said sounding like a boss not happy with his employee's professional ethics.
Incidentally, Van Ass's immediate predecessor Walsh also left on a sour note after some of his demands were not agreed upon by HI, which led to SAI's intervention but even that failed to resolve the impasse.
Also interesting to note is that India were supposed to tour Van Ass's home Netherlands in run-up to the Olympics, but HI reportedly turned down Van Ass and High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans' proposal. Could that have added to Van Ass's displeasure can't be denied.
IBNLive Sports efforts to contact Van Ass in Holland remained futile as his cellphone kept ringing.
But undoubtedly, these unwelcome off-field incidents, which fail to cease, will once again hurt Indian hockey like a dagger in the heart - just a year away from the Olympics where India haven't won a medal for the last 35 years.
And as the team gathers for a fitness camp, the players are in the dark whether their coach will be back to guide them. Not an ideal situation and another disaster in the waiting.
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