The Federation Cup volleyball championship begins here on Wednesday evening but National champion Tamil Nadu men are expected to land in Kochi only in morning!
Of the many teams that have landed, Punjab’s big star Gurinder Singh was expected to join the side later. It’s clear that the teams are not taking the Federation Cup seriously.
Even host Kerala, the defending champion, did not have a preparatory camp for the championship.
“Our players were busy playing all-India tournaments for their departmental teams the last few weeks, so we could not have a proper camp,” said S. Manoj, the Kerala coach.
“The Federation Cup needs to be timed properly. We just had the National championship a couple of months ago and the Federation Cup should not be coming so close to it,” explained Manoj.
The Fed Cup may not come anywhere close to the National championship when it comes to quality but Punjab, loaded with Punjab Police stars, is keen to put up a strong fight.
The championship, which concludes on March 5, will be held on a league-cum-knockout format in the men’s section while the women’s event will be a round robin league.
