As the national volleyball championships return to Chennai after a gap of five years, Tamil Nadu men find themselves in a very good position to defend their title on home territory.
Traditional powerhouses Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Railways and Services will once again begin the tournament as favourites.
“We are confident of defending our title. We had a very good 15-day camp in preparation for the tournament. We also played an invitational tournament in Bengaluru,” said Tamil Nadu coach P. Sundaram.
The presence of four players who represented the country in the Asian Games last year will definitely help the defending champion.
TN has been grouped with Punjab, against which it will kick off its campaign on Saturday, Haryana and Services.
“Our biggest rivals will be Kerala, apart from Railways and Services. We lost to Kerala in the final of the invitational tournament in Bengaluru recently, but we hope to set that right,” said Sundaram. “Punjab played well last year, and it will be an interesting team to watch out for this year; we will not take them lightly.”
Kerala, which made it to the last four last year, seemed to be confident of its chances this year. With two players from the victorious Tamil Nadu team — C. Jerome Vinith and G.S. Akhin — joining them, their chances look even brighter.
However, last year’s runner-up, Uttarakhand has fielded a weak side for this edition after some of its top players were not selected following a squabble between a major club in the state and the Volleyball Federation of India. Another team, Telangana has also run into trouble with the federation refusing to recognise the local federation.
This has meant there could be two teams showing up on Saturday: one by a VFI-backed ad-hoc committee and the other selected by the local federation.
The tournament will feature 27 men’s teams and 24 women’s teams, and will be played on a league-cum-knockout basis.
In the men’s section, the teams are divided into six groups, with Group A and B featuring four teams which made the knockout last year, while Groups C, D and E will have five teams, and Group F four.
The top three teams from the first two groups will qualify for the knockout stages. For the last two slots, six teams — A4, B4, and the top teams from Groups C, D, E and F — will battle it out in a second-round play-off.
In the women’s section, defending champion Railways will look to continue its dominance.