Happy to welcome you all sports readers. Today, we are bringing one of the most energetic sports in India, volleyball. Along with you, we are giving more details about Indian volleyball.
History of Indian volleyball
Volleyball was invented in 1895 by a physical director William G Morgan at Holyoke. An indoor game designed for a businessman who taught basketball is too active.
Moreover, Morgan soon wrote a set of rules and printed them on the handbook of young Christian associations of North America in 1897.
The game had wide development in schools, colleges as both males and females could play.
Volleyball in india
The game played informally in India over a long period. Along with the Indian Olympic association in 1936 first interstate volleyball tournament had held.
The Volleyball Federation of India in 1951 gave the promising structure to interstate tournaments. In particular, the game evolved into the senior national championship in 1952. This elicited many players to the international level.
Soon after the formation of the federation, India had their success in Asian volleyball games held in Tokyo. In 1958 Gurudev Singh led the team winning bronze in Asian games. At the time, Iran and Japan said to be the go-getters of volleyball.
In the 1962 Asian games, India won four consecutive matches. Whereas, they had a problem with Japan losing the final set 15-12. Besides settling with a silver medal the highest achievement ever at the Asian games.
From 1962 to 1982 India couldn’t find a way to win a medal. Differing from other seasons, India had a very good team. The team players all winning Arjuna awards proved to be a legendary team.
In the 1986 Asian games, India had Jimmy George, the player who turned Indian volleyball. Firstly the 6.2 with classy jump and powerful smash helped to beat the powerhouse Japan. Besides couldn’t continue the tempo falling to China, India ended with a bronze medal.
The game popularity got dropped off due to a misunderstanding with the federations following the death of Jimmy George in an accident. And soon the men’s and women’s volleyball teams dominated South Asian federation games.
From 2010 India found their good rhythm capturing the bronze medal and playing finals in the 2014 Asian games. Above all the Indian men’s team ranked 34th in the world ranking. Furthermore, winning the eighth gold medal in the south Asian games in 2016.
Talks opened up that Indian players couldn’t travel to play leagues which affects the exposure and style of the game.
Volleyball is a sport played in both rural-urban areas of india. Meanwhile, the Indian men’s team ranked 78th in the world. The Indian volleyball team had ups and downs in history and never qualified for the Olympics.
Whereas twice to the world championship. Despite no world stage history India had success in continental and Asian games.
There are a few worrying factors about Indian volleyball, some of them are said to be the absence of sponsors and poor marketing.
In particular, there is no proper infrastructure for the players to train and pay is less compared to other national teams.
Moreover only Kerala and Karnataka play volleyball with no implication given to others. Eventually, there is no television coverage for the sport and the media doesn’t give any support. Firstly, very few tournaments are happening and short of a strong support staff team in big tournaments. If India would smash all barrier balls this sport becomes the predominant sport in the country.