New Delhi: The Special Committee constituted by Hockey India (HI) to review the men and women teams' performance ended with a decisive piece of information on Saturday as chairman of the committee and former Olympian Harbinder Singh said the disgruntled men's team coach Paul van Ass will not return to resume his job.
"We are not considering Van Ass since he is not responding, so there is no question of him returning," Harbinder told reporters after marathon meeting at the Hockey India office, which also involved BP Govinda, V Baskaran, AB Subbaiah, Thoiba Singh, RP Singh, Asunta Lakra and Jasjeet Kaur.
"We have given our recommendations on the Van Ass matter to Hockey India but we can't reveal them. It's for Hockey India to decide now," he said.
Hockey India president Narinder Batra and High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans are expected to meet Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Director General Injeti Srinivas early next week, after which a formal announcement over the issue is expected.
If Van Ass were to be asked to leave, it will once again leave India to start with a new coach just a year away from the Rio Olympics.
Harbinder also commented on the committee's view on the team's performance in Belgium. "To finish fourth at World League semis was good but not satisfactory," he said.
Throughout the week since Monday, Van Ass has maintained that HI president Narinder Batra has fired him, and it's being wrongly projected that he has quit and therefore didn't return to India after the FIH World League semi-finals in Belgium.
The row began with the report that Batra and Van Ass had a spat after the quarter-final against Malaysia, which apparently ended with an angry exchange between them.
Batra at first denied any such incident, but when Van Ass came out in the media to confirm it after revealing that "he's been fired", the HI president too confirmed the incident.
That led to a series of allegations and counter-allegations with the Dutchman saying he was never wanted and didn't have a ticket to return to his job. Batra replied to that by sharing the copy of Van Ass's confirmed return tickets.
Now it was the coach's turn to make a u-turn as he said that Batra may have got the ticket confirmed after High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans sent a mail informing the Dutchman about his axe.
Van Ass then mailed his employer Sports Authority of India (SAI), claiming that he has attached with his mail all the proof that confirms he was actually sacked and didn't quit on his own.
When contacted by IBNLive, Sports Secretary Ajit Sharan said all that SAI has with them is a "rambling" mail without anything that proves Van Ass has been fired. "Who is Oltmans to inform him!" Sharan questioned, rightly pointing that it's only SAI that can hand HI coaches a pink slip.
Amid all this, Van Ass also said that he would be keen to continue in his job provided there is no interference in his work.
"If I am asked to return, I would be ready to do that. But before that, there have to be lots of discussions. I don't want anyone to interfere in the processes I put in place while coaching India," Van Ass, who is currently at home in Rotterdam, said.
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