V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM
HYDERABAD
Hyderabad has only two beach volleyball courts. One of them at Musheerabad Playground (the other is at Victory PG) is unfit for training anymore.
Yet, two City-based teams emerged champions in the men’s and women’s sections in the recently-held beach volleyball Nationals in Chennai.
The men's team comprising M. Krishnam Raju (38 years) and T. Naresh (36) is a seasoned duo, training and competing together for the last 12 years. They defeated Tamil Nadu in the final to clinch the honours for the fourth time in the senior Nationals. Both are Inspectors in Income Tax (Hyderabad) but represented Andhra Pradesh.
And, it was the scratch combination of T. Sri Kruthi (22) of Hyderabad and V. Aishwarya (21) of Nalgonda, coached and mentored by Abdul Khalikh Anwar, which hogged the limelight defeating Puducherry in its maiden appearance in the senior Nationals.
Raju and Naresh felt this victory was important to prove critics wrong. “Many had written us off and even made fun of our age. But we were determined to show that age is just a number as long as you are mentally and physically fit,” the pair told The Hindu.
“We got acclimatised to the conditions by undergoing two weeks training at the Visakhapatnam beach and that helped us a lot,” Raju said.
On the other hand, Naresh hoped their win would boost the sport which has seen a surge in terms of the number of boys and girls playing in the last two years.
“With AP Volleyball Association hosting events regularly in Visakhapatnam, the future looks good,” the champion duo felt.
Women’s coach Anwar said his wards, Sree Kruthi and Aishwarya , reposed the faith he had in them with a consistent display in a very tough field.
The 58-year-old Anwar, an employee of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, who had represented India in the 1994 Asian Games when the team finished eighth, said if the City had more sand courts and quality coaching, many more champions would emerge.
