Its suggestion was promptly accepted by HI, which immediately sacked the Dutchman on Saturday after the conclusion of the meeting.
The moment the 24-member committee sat down from Thursday in New Delhi to review the performance of the Indian hockey team in its three-day meet, it seemed Roelant Oltmans's fate as head coach was sealed.
The panel comprising HI high performance director David John, former Indian Olympians, Hockey India (HI) officials, some current players and members of support staff were almost unanimous in their views that Oltmans, whose contract ran till 2020 Tokyo Olympics, needed to go.
Its suggestion was promptly accepted by HI, which immediately sacked the Dutchman on Saturday after the conclusion of the meeting.
"This was needed," Australia's John said. "I think the team has done well, it's improved its ranking from 11 to 6. But for the public of India and, we now want to progress to become the No. 1 or No. 2 in the world over the next 2-4 years, and not stagnating at 6-8 in the world rankings. We need that to occur relatively quickly."
Oltmans, who has been an advocate of processes and thinking about long-term results, gave presentations on Thursday and Friday on the way forward for the team but it cut no ice with the committee. Add to that, his inability to offer a proper explanation for India's poor results over the last couple of months was the clincher, especially the losses against Malaysia and Canada in the World Hockey League Semi-Finals in London in June and July.
Former national coach V Baskaran, who was part of the committee, said the decision was due after those results.
"This was on the cards since after the London tour," he said. "The committee had a lot of queries for Oltmans, asking him about the poor results. He couldn't handle the members yesterday (Friday), and he also didn't seem to have a proper answer that could explain the poor outings. So, we thought we needed to have a change."
Another member, who did not wish to be named, said the committee was unanimous about the decision.
"It was unanimous. Once Oltmans finished his presentations and left on Friday, we were sure that the writing was on the wall. Hockey India officials called him on Saturday to inform him about the sacking, but he did not answer the call. He was sent a mail and text message," the member said.
The 63-year-old Oltmans is the latest foreign coach to have been fired prematurely. From Ric Charlesworth (Australia), Jose Brasa (Spain), Michael Nobbs (Australia), Terry Walsh (Australia) and Paul Van Ass (The Netherlands), HI has shut the door on these coaches for reasons varying from poor results to problems with top HI officials.
Oltmans came into Indian hockey as high performance director in 2013, and took over as head coach of the men's team after Van Ass's sacking in July 2015. He was given a four-year contract extension last year, and that's why his sacking has come as a surprise to some even in the federation.
"It's not good to sack him at this juncture," a source in HI said. "I'm sure he had a plan in place. The team was improving and it was a work in progress."
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 "Roelant Oltmans")
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