Despite India’s impressive early run in the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou, where its men stunned former three-time champion South Korea and a higher-ranked Chinese Taipei before finishing sixth, volleyball will not be in the National Games which begin in Goa on October 26.
That’s because the ad hoc committee, formed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in mid-June to run volleyball in the country and to conduct the Volleyball Federation of India’s elections, feels that since there is not much time available, the selection of the eight teams for the National Games could run into legal complications.
“We are in a situation where we cannot recommend eight teams for the National Games without any dispute happening afterwards. We don’t have an undisputed criteria to qualify the teams. If we select eight teams, we should be able to defend it. That is the problem faced by the ad hoc committee,” former international S. Gopinath, a member of IOA’s volleyball ad hoc committee, told The Hindu on October 18 while revealing that the sport has been dropped from the National Games.
