PANJIM: In a surprise move, volleyball has been axed from the upcoming National Games slated to begin from October 26 in Goa.
This news comes as a major setback for the sport as recently, the Indian Men’s Volleyball team recently finished sixth at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
The decision to drop volleyball comes after the ad-hoc committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in mid-June to run the sport in the country, has to conduct elections at the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI). Since there is not much time available, the selection of the eight teams for the National Games could run into legal complications.
As per IOA norms, teams gearing up for the National Games should be selected based on their rankings in the National Championships.
However, as the VFI is suspended and their Nationals were conducted in February, the ranking stands invalid. The ad hoc committee cannot conduct a fresh tournament to determine the rankings as it lacks time and money.
Addressing media persons, Amitabh Sharma, Chairman of National Games Technical Conduct Committee and Swetika Sachan, Secretary Sports and CEO National Games Organising Committee said that a situation arose due to the impending elections at VFI.
“An ad-hoc committee was in-charge and a team had participated in the Asian Games where they beat higher ranked teams and came 6th. Now with regards to the National Games, the teams are selected by the Federation, taking into consideration the ranking for selection. This is a continuous process for all the federations,” Sharma said.
Now, he said, there was a gap in that process. Since the Federation became defunct, the ad-hoc committee was constituted. He said a conversation was going on as to how one could manage the situation and the point was to give a fair chance of participation.
“We have been trying to resolve the situation and we will let you know the final decision at the earliest,” he said, adding, “volleyball and beach volleyball are two different verticals of the same sporting federation and a decision on both would be made at the earliest”.
