Date:15/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/15/stories/2008021560592200.htm

Sport - Hockey

National league begins today

Special Correspondent

NELLORE: With a lion leaping to spike as mascot, the National volleyball league preliminary round I looks set to unleash loads of action at the A.C. Subba Reddy Stadium complex here on Friday. With several internationals in the fray, the competition for the country’s leading clubs is expected to be keen.

In accordance with the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) directives to popularise and professionalise the game through clubs, the Federation Cup had made way for this league, said A. Ramana Rao, President of A.P. Volleyball Association and Chairman, Control Committee.

Exposure

The event offers exposure to employers who have enrolled volleyball players as also encouragement to private clubs, who are each permitted to import two foreign players.

The presence of internationals from the Indian youth and junior squads will pep up the pace further, as will that of Suresh and two others who are Nellore natives. Strangely, no player has been recruited by the A.P. Government in 12 years, the Dronacharya and Arjuna Awardee added.

Three 12-tier galleries (built with just 20 days notice after Guwahati backed out) are in place that can seat 4,500 spectators, for whom entry is free. Action unfolds each evening from 5 p.m. (except on Saturday from 4 p.m.), with floodlights ready to take over when natural light fades as three matches have to be completed everyday.

In Friday’s lung-opener, BPCL, Kochi will taken on SAAP, Hyderabad at 5 p.m. that will be preceded by the inauguration by A. Ram Narayan Reddy, AP Minister for Information and Public Relations, where Panabaka Lakshmi, Union Minister of State for Health, will be the guest of honour.

The groupings:

Men: A: BPCL Kochi Refineries (Kochi); South Central Railway (Secunderabad); Indian Navy; SAAP (Hyderabad).

B: IOB (Chennai), ONGC (Dehradun), VVR Club (Hyderabad), Karnataka Police (Bangalore).

Women: Southern Railway (Chennai), Eastern Railway (Kolkata), Central Railway (Mumbai), SAI (Thalassery).