NEW DELHI: Just three days after former chief coach of Indian hockey team, Aussie Michael Nobbs, made a case for an Indian coach for the national side, TOI has learnt that Hockey India has proposed six names to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for the top post of both the men’s and women’s teams.

In a letter to SAI on Thursday, the hockey federation has proposed the names of Dutch coaches Paul van Ass and Hans Streeder, and Australian coach Alexander for the men’s team. It has also put forward the names of New Zealand’s Anthony Mark Thornton, Canada’s Mathias Ahrens and South Africa’s Fabian Gregory for the women’s team.

SAI top officials are scheduled to meet on February 9 to finalise the names.

The men’s team’s post fell vacant when men’s coach Terry Walsh resigned just three weeks after guiding the team to Asian Games gold medal. The Australian resigned as he wanted a better deal and also because Hockey India asked him to explain allegations of financial irregularities against him when he was the coach of USA. A month later, women’s team’s coach Neil Hawgood parted ways, refusing to extend his contract which ended in December 2014.

Hans Streeder is likely to be the top contender for the post of chief coach of men’s team. Streeder had assisted Roelant Oltmans, the then head coach of the Netherlands men’s hockey team, during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Oltmans, now a high-performance director with Hockey India, is currently the interim head coach of the Indian men’s hockey team after Walsh’s exit.

The other Dutch coach, Paul van Ass, guided his national team to a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. He was appointed coach of the Netherlands in June 2010 and was also in charge of the men’s u-21 national team, Jong Oranje.

As for the women’s team, Thornton, who was the head coach of women’s hockey programme at New South Wales Institute of Sport for four years (till 2013), is a leading contender.

Thornton was also the head coach of Australia’s u-21 men’s team.

Canada’s Mathias Ahrens has been in charge of his country’s junior men’s team, the Durkheimer Hockey Club and the Scottish Institute of Sports. The South African contender Fabian Gregory was earlier the coach of South African women’s team and in 2014 appointed as the head coach of their national men’s team. Gregory, who replaced Charlie Pereira, has been appointed till the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.