The Hindu : Sport : Will Indian seniors make the grade?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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Will Indian seniors make the grade?

M.C. Raman

Chennai: Nobody can blame the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) officials if they nurture the dream of India playing in the World senior men's championship. Now, India is on the threshold of making it to the coveted event when the World qualifying championship gets underway at the SDAT multipurpose indoor stadium here on Friday.

There are reasons to believe that India has the capability to make the grade. The side is no longer afraid of facing the three Asian giants — China, Korea and Japan. Japan has automatically qualified for the 2006 event as the host country. The other five teams from Asia will be decided through qualifying events in different places.

In the last five or six years, India had beaten the Asian `stalwarts' in every major competition. India got off to a flying start in the last Asian championship in China, beating the defending champion Korea in a thrilling five-setter. Moreover, India had beaten China and Iran in the last edition of the Rashid Memorial tournament.

Coach optimistic

But still India cannot take things for granted. However, Indian coach G.E. Sridharan is optimistic about India's chances. "If Kazakhstan can beat Korea on home turf and Iran is likely to dispose of Australia at home in the qualifier, then why can't India? Kazakhstan's win over Korea was a big surprise. In fact, Kazakhstan was a strong side during the early 90s when it broke off from the Soviet Union. It had defeated every top Asian teams at that time. But after that India has been beating that nation regularly in every major championship. Our aim is to qualify in the first phase itself. And we will not take Thailand and Indonesia lightly. They are also doing pretty well and have beaten us," said Sridharan.

Not long ago, the VFI Secretary, K. Murugan, opined that India had the finest attack in Asia. It needed improvement in serve and block. If only it achieves that Indian team will become a force to reckon with at the world-level.

Strong side

The team looks pretty strong. With Tom Joseph, Srikanth, Shijas Mohammed, Abhijit Bhattacherjee and Nadrajan as attackers, Subba Rao, Asia's best in the last championship, Rathish and Rajeev as the main blockers and Kapil Dev and Ravikanth Reddy as setters and Joby Joseph as libero, India can accomplish what it dreams of.

Sanjay Kumar's ligament problem in his spike arm has kept him out of the list. But the side looks strong. "They have been put through a hard grind and their jump has improved now and they are physically fit. Now my job is to put things together for the success," said Sridharan.

Meanwhile, Brazilian Oliveira, who is expected to take over as the national coach, has not arrived here yet although the VFI has requested him to come before the National championship.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, will officially inaugurate the event on June 25.

Meanwhile, the Chinese team, which was expected to arrive here on Tuesday morning, was stranded on its way as the flight was delayed by 10 hours.

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