NEW DELHI, July 9: India’s field hockey chiefs on Tuesday sacked national coach Michael Nobbs due to the team’s poor performances, making the Australian the fourth foreign coach to be axed in the past decade.a “Nobbs will not be working with the national team,” Hockey India secretary-general Narinder Batra told reporters in New Delhi.

“We have informed the Sports Authority of India about it. Nobbs was unable to improve the team’s performance or produce desired results.”

Hockey India’s high performance director, Dutch-man Roelant Oltmans, will step in as a temporary replacement for Nobbs before the next coach is appointed, Batra said.

Nobbs, 58, was appointed Indian coach in June 2011 for a five-year term that would have seen him in charge until the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Oltmans, 58, will take charge for next month’s Asia Cup tournament in Malaysia, which India must win to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in the Netherlands.—AFP