Monday, Mar 10, 2003
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Volleyball
By M.C. Raman
The fourth and final leg of the preliminary league is commencing at Anna Stadium here on Monday. The qualifiers from these rounds (Bangalore, Manipal, Dehradun and Nagercoil) will move to Renukoot (UP) where the Super League will be held from March 23 to 30. The preparation for the National Games and the Federation Cup in February virtually crippled VFI's schedule and the main victim is the National League. But the Federation has decided to go ahead with available teams. What made it worse was the scheduling of Departmental competitions in between. Nowadays, the institutions insist their players figure in their inter-department competitions, skipping the national camps and international tournaments. "Some of them are not releasing their players. We have to complete the National League. We have to get the players for national camps as we are committed to international events. "The India junior team has to be prepared for the World championship in August and the senior team has to be strengthened for the Asian championship in September. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to coordinate things without support from every one. I am worried," said K. Murugan, Secretary, VFI. Another major impediment in organising major competitions like National League is the lack of rapport between the club teams and the State Associations. Some of them do not even bother to reply and the participating teams are kept in the dark. It is for this reason the VFI is planning for direct registration of club teams, which are willing to take part in the National League, with the Federation. If this is accomplished, perhaps, it will be easy to organise preliminary rounds properly. It is still better if the preliminary matches are completed five or six months ahead of the Super League during the lean period. This Nagercoil leg is expected to be quite interesting in the sense that the defending champion, Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai, begins its campaign here. It is undoubtedly the strongest club side in the country. But its main spiker Sivabalan's hairline fracture has kept him out of action for some time now. As he is a member of the Indian junior team that has qualified for this year's World championship, he has been advised not play till he is fully fit. Still IOB can repeat last year's show if it is in full strength. Then the Punjab Police and Kerala State Electricity Board, who are ready to challenge the champion side. In the next rung are the Army outfit, IAF (Delhi), Mayor's Club (Hyderabad) and Western Railway (Mumbai). Another interesting development is that club teams are being tried in the women's section. There aren't too many women club sides. It is for this reason that the VFI was permitting only State squads. But it has taken a bold step. Now it is up to the State associations to promote more women's clubs to enlarge the base. Southern Railway, Chennia, has been a consistent performer over the years. SAI (Bangalore), Jercy & Mercy Club (Delhi) and Sivanthi Club (Chennai) have to put in more efforts to dislodge the Railway side.
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