The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : Volleyball brothers from Krishna

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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Volleyball brothers from Krishna

G. Narasimha Rao

Young spiker Sai Kapil

VISAKHAPATNAM: All siblings being good in a sport may not be rare but all four brothers being internationals is certainly a rare occurrence. One of the key players of the Indian Youth volleyball team M. Sai Kapil and his three elder brothers hold this distinction.

The tall Sai Kapil, touching 2.03 meters, is a southpaw and is endowed with a devastating smash.

He is an important spiker and universal of the Indian youth team that will be playing in the Asian Youth Volleyball Championship to be held in Colombo from next week. The team has undergone a long and exhaustive camp at the Port stadium here.

Sai Kapil’s eldest brother M.S. Rajesh has played for India and elder brothers M.S. Raghu represented Railways in the senior National championship while M. Kartik Srikanth played for India in a Test series with a foreign country.

He is now with BSF.

With three elder brothers excelling in volleyball it is natural that Sai Kapil too is attracted towards the game.

Sai Kapil, seventeen-and-a-half years of age, started playing volleyball four years ago when he joined the Sports Authority of AP’s hostel here. Then he moved to the SAI hostel and is at present with the Centre of Excellence of SAAP in Hyderabad.

He appeared for the selection trials for the National Youth team held in May at the port stadium and was inducted into the team.

Sai Kapil’s father M.V.B.P. Kumar is a Director of SAAP. Hence it is natural that his sons took to sport but the surprising aspect is that he played cricket but his sons are attracted to the less glamorous volleyball.

How this has happened. M.S. Rajesh, as a tall boy studying at the St. John’s School at Gannavaram (Krishna district) and Krishna District Volleyball Association secretary Koteswara Rao decided that he would make a good volleyball player as height is a great advantage in the game.

Rajesh soon joined the SAI hostel and the renowned coach Syamsundara Rao honed his skills and the young boy from Chinna Paripudi village in Krishna district graduated to play for India.

His younger brothers followed him and earned a name for themselves.

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