The Hindu : 'Indians are technically very good'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 26, 2003

Sport

Sport - Football

'Indians are technically very good'

By Stan Rayan

KOCHI MAY 25. Like a teenager admiring her sweetheart, she kept looking up to him quite often, intently catching every word he said. The two, Bulgarian volleyball Olympian Hristo Iliev and his aerobic-gymnast wife Valentina, made quite a picture. And despite the huge height difference between the two, they made a lovely combo.

Indian volleyball too has good reason to look up to Iliev, its new national coach, as it attempts to touch the sky. A star of the Bulgarian team that won the silver medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, 52-year-old Iliev also won the best attacker award in the European junior championship in 1971. And when one is speaking to a six-foot, six-inch giant, one often has to gaze skywards.

Iliev, who was on a private visit to Kochi, spoke to The Hindu about some of his new plans. He also painted a bright future for the sport in the country.

``Technically, the Indians are very good, I would say even better than the Bulgarians and among the best in Asia. So with some tuning up here and there, we could go places. The recent Asian youth title in Visakhapatnam is a nice stepping-stone,'' he said.

Indians are very strong in attack, but our service and block need improvement, felt the Bulgarian. "The difference between the Asian superpowers and India is not much but China and Japan are superior in these two departments. And China plays well in the defence,'' said Iliev who was the chief coach of Bulgaria two years ago.

``I want to change the system of the blockers in the defence, also the recovery pattern of the blockers,'' said Iliev, one of the best blockers Bulgaria has ever produced.

The level of defence is very different indoors and outdoors so playing in the `open' could be a handicap, he said.

Iliev was all praise for international Tom Joseph, the star of Kochi Refineries Limited team that finished runner-up in the recent National Volleyball League. "Tom is among the top `universals' in Asia, and if he works a little more on his service and block, he could be the best in the continent,'' he said.

Coming from a country with a population of just eight million, Iliev is clearly overawed by the big crowds here. And also floored by the friendly people everywhere.

``But on court, Indian players have to be more aggressive. And they should support each other more. Sometimes, they tend to overburden the top players during matches,'' observed the coach.

With the Youth World championship coming up in Thailand in July, followed by the Junior World Cup in Teheran and the Senior Asian Championship in China, Indian volleyball is preparing for a very important phase. A phase that could write a few glorious chapters for the sport in the country.

``Chander Singh and G.E. Sridharan are doing a lot of good work, now we should all work together to take the sport to new heights. We should make Indian volleyball one big happy family,'' said Iliev, flashing his toothy smile.

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