Associate Secretary of Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) Arikapudi Ramana Rao on Monday said that the second edition of the Indian Volley League (IVL) failed to take off owing to different reasons, predominantly the pulling out of the sponsors. IVL, a professional league launched by VFI, was inaugurated on 2011 and Chennai Spikers took the honours in the tourney in which six teams, comprising players from all over the country took part in the six-week-long carnival.
Mr. Rao said that barring Chennai-based sponsors, the big corporates had pulled out throwing the league in a quandary. “There were also some other pressing issues. Players felt that they were paid less and demanded more money. Some franchisees felt that the players were paid more. The league was a run-away-hit as the players played in four different venues drawing huge crowd. The tourney was staged for six weeks along with a couple weeks for training and coaching,” said Mr. Rao, a Dronacharya and Arjuna awardee.
Mr. Rao said VFI was making efforts to stage league in the year 2013 in the months of June and July. “These months are suitable for players as the international fixtures begin in September. For players this league would help them hone their skills and prepare for the crucial Asian and world fixtures”.
Mr. Rao said the forthcoming Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) meeting scheduled to be held at Beijing (China) would be crucial as many countries, including India, would be bidding to host the Asian tourneys. “Bidding would be intense as many countries would be keen to host these senior Asian tourneys as they are prestigious and popular. States like West Bengal and Chhattisgarh are showing interest to host big events. A venue to host a senior Asian tourney should have two competition stadiums and four training halls as per the specifications of Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB).
