Sport - Volleyball

Pat and purse for boys’ team and coach

CHENNAI: The President of the Volleyball Federation of India, B. Sivanthi Adityan, announced a cash reward of Rs. three lakh to the team and Rs. one lakh to coach G.E. Sridharan for India’s bronze medal finish in the Asian boys’ youth championship at Colombo which helped the side qualify for the 2009 World championship to be held in August in Italy.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Adityan said India’s good show in Sri Lanka had come at a time when the Federation was in the process of evolving a concrete plan for preparing the Indian team for the 2012 London Olympics.

He said the Indian boys had enough time to prepare well for the World championship in Italy and expressed confidence that they would come back with the gold medal. The VFI Secretary-General, K. Murugan, said the significant aspect of India’s performance was that it had beaten World No. 2 China for the third place and also stretched World No. 1 Iran to five sets before losing. “Actually, we nearly beat Iran in the semifinal,” said coach Sridharan. “Two simple mistakes in blocks and a couple of doubtful line calls cost us dearly in the deciding fifth game,” he added.

While Mr. Murugan was all praise for the depth of talent in the team, Sridharan said that this was one of the best teams that had left the Indian shores.

“The average height was 1.97m and there were at least four players who were over two metres. Vaishno (from Coimbatore), Navjeet Singh, Sreesanth and libero Vinod Maggy were outstanding,” Sridharan said while summing up the boys’ performance.

Mr. Adityan also said that the Federation was planning to launch a short league akin to cricket’s IPL which will involve players of various age groups in the national camp.

Elaborating Mr. Adityan’s point, Mr. Murugan said that the selection committee had identified 60 men’s players for the national camp and they would form the core group from which six teams of 10 players each would be selected based on the sponsors’ bidding.

In addition, each sponsor could bring in two additional players (from abroad or locally). Unlike cricket, the bidding price would be placed at a modest level and the stress would be on providing the players the best facilities for stay and travel. In the women’s section, 48 players have been identified for four teams but there will be no bidding in this category.

Mr. Murugan said the teams would be based in six centres — Maharashtra (Pune), Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam), Rajasthan and West Bengal have so far come forward to have a base each.

In March 2009, these teams would play a ‘league’ at each centre. The total budget for the month-long programme has been put at Rs. 1.8 crore.

The VFI would chip in with Rs. 20 lakh towards the prize pool and a committee headed by the Puducherry Transport Minister, Krishna Rao, with S. Kothandaramiah, Ramavatar Singh and Rahir Kar as members has been formed to oversee the programme. The women would have their league in four centres.

Earlier, the boys’ team was received at the airport in the morning by Mr. Murugan and other VFI officials.

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