Chennai tourney launches 'total' volleyball

CHENNAI: They say the past defines the future and in the case of volleyball this adage is literally coming true. Triples volleyball, the lesser known cousin of regular volleyball is poised to make a comeback and how. And one of the first steps is the Panimalar P John Memorial All India Volleyball Tournament starting on Wednesday where this variant will make its apperance for the first time with the blessings of the national federation.
A popular form of the sport in the districts and villages, this used to be the stepping stone for many of India's great players like Palanisamy (volleyball's first Arjuna awardee), Suleiman, Athikannu, who honed their skills in triples before going to greater success in the regular (sixes) volleyball.
This form of the sport was not given its proper due by the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) in the sixties and seventies, as they wanted to popularise the regular version. So Indian players were barred from taking part in these events.
K Murugan, secretary of the VFI, remembers the time he used to play under disguised names in order to indulge his fancy. "The great attraction of this sport is that it requires limited infrastructure. You just need three players on each side and a ball," he said. "So a group of friends could just get together and improve their volleyball skills."
So then why the apathy of the volleyball federation? Walter Davaram, vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India and a keen volleyball connoisseur, says the body wanted to concentrate on regular volleyball. "Then even though there were regular tournaments, the world body still did not give their approval for them. So the Indian federation wanted the players to concentrate on regular volleyball," he added.
That is one of the reasons why many of the current players have not played a triples tournament, a fact the current Indian coach GE Sridharan rues. "Triples volleyball improves counterattack, defence and anticipation which our players lack. And a player's allround game also improves vastly. That is because three players have to play the roles of six players. It's like total football, where evey player becomes adept at any given position," he went on to say.
And it is only recently that VFI has taken steps to bring triples under their fold. "We got a directive from IOA asking us to improve the players' abilities in various sports and in volleyball we decided to allow triples' competitions," Murugan aaid.
J Natarajan, former technical director of the Indian team, said that players who come from the districts and villagers to cities were often better than the ones from the cities."But after a year or two in the city, their levels would drop because they came from a tradition of playing triples and in the city with no triples competitions, their ablities would often take a beating. And now with events like these oming along, it will ensure that levels do not drop," he went on to say.
The men's section of the all-India volleyball tourney in Chennai which has 20 teams will vie for the triples title while the women's event will be a regular six-a-side tournament.