CHENNAI: To make India's presence felt more at the international level, the Volleyball Federation of India has gone in for some tough measures to up the standards of the sport in the country.

Though Indians have been consistently doing well at the junior level (India in fact has qualified for the World youth championship in August in Mexico), the seniors' performance has been a cause for worry. What compounded VFI's agony was the Union Sports Ministry's decision to remove volleyball from the priority list.

"That step, considering the criteria, was justifiable," maintained K. Murugan, VFI Secretary-General, while speaking to the media.

"We needed to finish within the top eight at the Asian Games, and last time, despite some wonderful wins, India could finish only ninth," he said on the Ministry's decision.

"That made us think and look deeper into the team potential. The committee which analysed the team's performance felt that the time was ripe for change. Two points were openly discussed. One that the senior players lacked the enthusiasm to attend camps and discipline is an aspect we should take seriously. Second, if with the seniors the team has been unable to prove much and then why not bring in promising youngsters and groom them. In short, we are looking at the future," said Murugan on VFI's decision to remove some of the seniors from the National side.

For the upcoming Asian Central zone championship — to be held in Islamabad from June 19 to 23 — players like Tom Joseph, Kapil Dev, R. Rajeev, Sanjay Kumar, Subba Rao and T.P. Sayuj have been overlooked. Mr. Murugan said National coach Shyamsundar and Teams in-charge A. Ramana Rao insisted that this change was needed to infuse a fresh approach in the National side. "We are no longer looking at the Asian Games as an achievement level but the Asian championship and the World championship. The new-look team will be the core group that will remain till 2014," he said.

Mr. Murugan said that a coaching camp for the Indian team for the World youth championship would be held in Bangalore from June 16.

Test series

The Indian team leaving for Islamabad for the Asian Central zone championship will stay back to play a four-Test series at Peshawar, Wah, Islamabad and Lahore from June 26 to July 2. On return, Pakistan will come over for a four-Test series from August 5 to August 15. The likely venues are Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Chennai. Prior to that India will host the Commonwealth championship in Kolkata from July 30 to August 4.

Yet another international fixture coming up is the Asian circuit beach volleyball (men and women) in Hyderabad from July 4 to 7. Ten countries — China, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and host India — will take part in it.

Earlier in the day, an FIVB Level-I coaches' course was inaugurated at the FIVB regional development centre by Rekha Ramachandran, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Triathlon Association. A. Ramana Rao is the course director and 30 participants, including five from Sri Lanka, are taking part. The course will conclude on June 22.

Indian team for Pakistan tour: P.S. Srikanth (capt.), Gurjchand Singh, Mandeep Singh, Vibin George, K.P. Sayeem, Lalit Kumar, G. Pradeep, Sube Singh, Shelton Moses, Ukkra Pandian, Darshan Singh, Sivarajan; stand-byes: T. Naresh, V.M. Vijesh, Somnath Giri Gowda, Arun Jakhmola; officials: G.E. Sridharan (chief coach), S. Kaimullah (asst. coach), Harilal (trainer), R.D. Sharma (manager) and Sudarshan Patnaik (referee).

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