The axe has officially fallen on India's hockey coach Paul Van Ass, who was sacked by Hockey India after a special committee meeting held on Friday.
This brings an end to van Ass' short tenure as coach of the Indian hockey team during which India finished third in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and fourth in the Hockey World League.
However, a PTI report says that Hockey India's nine-member committee headed by Harbinder Singh has only made a recommendation that Van Ass should not be allowed to continue as coach.
Van Ass had officially taking over the reins of Indian hockey in March.
Dutchman van Ass had replaced Australian Terry Walsh as the coach of the Indian team.
Indian hockey fans were surprised on Monday when coach Paul van Ass stated that he was sacked by Hockey India, but the sporting body had denied it.
Things later became clear as to what had led to such a saga in Indian hockey. At the root of Van Ass' sacking seems to be an incident that happened at Antwerp, Belgium during the Hockey World League. After India defeated Malaysia in the competition, Hockey India President Narinder Batra gave a team talk to the Indian players, but the coach asked the president to leave, embarrassingly, in front of the players.
But the important question that remains is who will take charge of the Indian team with the Rio Olympics just a year away. There are chances that the high-performance manager Roelant Oltmans might take over the reins of the Indian hockey team.
