How Punjab volleyball lost its verve

Indervir Grewal

tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

A group of 30-odd lanky boys stands facing one man. Behind the man, himself over six feet tall, a volleyball net stretches between two brand new poles. His face lit up by the setting sun, the sexagenarian shouts out instructions in broken Hindi and English with a distinct South Indian accent.

His instructions are not meant for the kids but for the coaches standing around the court. This scene, taking place at the sandy volleyball court of the Sector 63 stadium in Mohali, is both a rare and encouraging one in Punjab.

The protagonist of the scene is former India coach GE Sridharan; the coaches, invited from all over the state, his students for five days; and the boys, 32 in total, belong to the newly set up volleyball residential academy in Mohali.

It is, in fact, only the second government-run residential academy to come up in the state. The other, in Sports School, Jalandhar, has been virtually defunct for years now.

It’s shocking, especially for a state that was once a powerhouse in the sport. Such was the dominance of the state at the Nationals that in three decades, 1950s to 1970s, Punjab missed the podium only five times.

But those days are long gone. Due to the neglect of the administrators, Punjab has been on a steady decline. Punjab has not won a medal at the Nationals since 2005, when the senior men won a bronze. The women’s team hasn’t won a medal (bronze) since 1997. At the junior level, the men last won a bronze in 2013, 13 years after their previous medal (bronze).

“During my playing days, Punjab was at the top. And its dominance continued till around the mid-90s,” said the 61-year-old Sridharan, who was the India coach until two years ago. “We still have guys from Punjab in the national camps but the number has gone down drastically,” added the Arjuna Award and Dronacharya Award winner.

Sridharan, who now works as a national coach with the Volleyball Federation of India, has been invited by the Punjab Sports Department and the newly-constituted Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS), which runs the residential wing in Mohali, to conduct a five-day (Aug 9-13) clinic for the state’s coaches. As the Tamil Nadu-born Sridharan goes over a few basic exercises with the trainees, a look at the number of coaches present explains the sorry state of volleyball in Punjab. There are only 18 coaches attending the clinic by one of India’s most celebrated coaches.

In fact, that is about as many coaches there are in Punjab — three coaches, including a permanent coach with the Sports Department who will retire in a few months, could not attend the clinic for various reasons.

Out of the coaches present, only 12 work for the Department — ad hoc or on deputation from Punjab Police.

Most of these coaches were hired around five years ago but till this year they coached at small centres without much government support. The same was the case with the few independent centres run by enthusiastic former players. “We didn’t get much support from the government. We gave training to whoever was interested. It wasn’t organised in any way,” said a coach.

It’s only this year that the Department has decided to spread the game by starting around 10 day-scholar wings in seven districts.

Dried talent pool

No wonder the talent pool has dried up so significantly that the PIS could find only 32 boys, in age groups of U-14, U-17 and U-19, from trials in 10 districts. PIS couldn’t find enough girls to start a wing. “We had trials at all the major cities. We were mainly looking for raw talent, 10-12-year-old kids who were over 170 metres tall. That’s the most important criterion — in the modern game players have to be over 190m. But not many who fit the criterion showed up at the trials,” said Chanchal Singh Chauhan, former India player and a coach with PIS.

PIS is planning a month-long talent-hunt campaign across the state later this year.

Long way back

“It’s a good step, one that was desperately needed. India needs Punjab volleyball to thrive again and this is the first step in that direction,” said Sridharan, a certified instructor with the international volleyball federation (FIVB). He added that this was his first visit to Punjab as an instructor.

“These coaches have the talent. But they will have to work really hard. They will have to take the initiative of finding talent; they’ll have to constantly keep learning. They will have to set targets and work towards them without fail. It’s a long process but if they work hard, Punjab volleyball will surely rise in the coming years.”

During his introductory lecture, Sridharan told the coaches that if they needed him he would be happy to help. PIS is planning to make the clinics a regular affair, inviting Sridharan twice a year. And the coaches are more than happy. “This was the kind of support we had dreamed of when we got into coaching. This is hugely motivating,” said a coach.