Volleyball federation to pick Asian Games team from National championship

The RuPay Prime Volleyball League begins in Hyderabad on Saturday and the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI), which has no role in it, has now taken a decision that closes the doors of the Indian team for the league’s stars this year.

The PVL runs from February 5 to 27 and the VFI has scheduled its National championship, in Bhubaneswar, from February 7 to 13 to set up a strange clash.

“The Indian team for the Asian Games will be selected from the Bhubaneswar National,” VFI’s secretary general Anil Choudhary told The Hindu from Jaipur on Friday.

He also made it clear that the VFI will not hold selection trials for the PVL stars to help them enter the Asiad team.

The VFI and Baseline Ventures jointly organised the Pro Volley League in 2019 but issues cropped up and the national federation terminated its contract with the latter after just one season. Later, the Madras High Court-appointed arbitrator Justice K. Kannan adjudged that the VFI had wrongly terminated Baseline Ventures’ (BV) contract for conducting the PVL and ordered the national federation to pay BV ₹4 crore as compensation.

Lessons learnt, BV brought in the new Prime Volleyball League and this time without VFI’s support. The seven-team PVL, featuring 84 Indian and 14 foreign players, is a private league where the owners are also the league’s stakeholders.

Clearly, that has upset the VFI and many believe the PVL-National dates clash, in the Asian Games year, is the federation’s move to trouble the league’s stars.

Not aware of league

Ramavtar Singh Jakhar, VFI’s CEO, offered a hint on how the next few moves could play out.

“The VFI is not aware of any league. And if some players are playing somewhere else, it has not received any application or letter from them regarding that,” he said.

“The VFI is only concerned about its activities. Our prime interest is to select the team for the Asian Games in China in September.”

But won’t India be weak without its stars who played in Asian championship in Japan last September?

“Right now, how can you say who is the best and who is not the best. My thinking is, if I am a player, I will have to show my performance on court, in VFI’s National championship,” said Jakhar.

That apart, the VFI also has issues with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS). And it does not figure among the ministry’s list of recognised national sports federations.

“That recognition is for one year only, every year they renew it, and till date, it has not renewed the annual recognition of the VFI. The election of the VFI, which is being examined by the MYAS, is the issue.”

Questions are now being raised whether the VFI is eligible to select the Indian team and whether it is in an unfair hurry to pick the Asian Games side.