Volleyball body dedicates Chandigarh meet to Nirmal Milkha Singh

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 7

The Chandigarh Volleyball Association (CVA) has decided to dedicate the upcoming state junior volleyball championships to late Nirmal Milkha Singh, former captain of Indian volleyball team and wife of former India sprinter late Milkha Singh.

}Nirmal was one of the prominent personalities of the city and was very supportive for the development of infrastructure here. It has been unanimously decided to honour her contributions by naming a trophy after her. —  Shashi Bala Sharma, President, Chandigarh Volleyball Assn

The championships for the Nirmal Milkha Singh Trophy will be conducted from December 11 to 12 and the matches will be played under floodlights.

The championship will be conducted at the Sector 26 Police Lines volleyball courts, which were built under her supervision, when she was the Director, UT Sports Department (1988-93).

Nirmal, who captained the Indian Volleyball team in 1956, had remained two-time president of the CVA and was also its patron-in-chief for nearly 25 years. Under her patronage, the association has conducted junior national championships thrice (1986, 2014 and 2019). Nirmal Milkha Singh died of Covid in June this year.

“The CVA will dedicate the state junior volleyball championships (girls and boys) to Nirmal Milkha Singh. It will be an annual feature of our association in her memory. She is remembered as an architect of sports infrastructure in the city,” said Vijaypal Singh, vice-president, Volleyball Federation of India, executive vice-president, CVA, and competition manager, Khelo India Volleyball Games, 2021.

Players born on or after January 1, 2003, will be eligible to participate in the championship. The organisers will also shortlist team to represent the city in the upcoming 47th Junior National Volleyball Championship to be held in Burdwan (West Bengal) from December 24 to 30, said CVA president Shashi Bala Sharma.

Chandigarh’s first Joint Director, Sports, Nirmal had joined the department in September 1984 when it had come into being and became the Director, Sports, in August 1988. She remained on the post till 1993. During her tenure, the department laid the foundation stone of the Sector 42 Sports Complex and built many other sports facilities in Chandigarh. 

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