Introduced as mintonette, a recreation sport for businessmen, by W.G. Morgan,
Physical Director, Springfield College of Physical Education, Holyoke, Massachusetts,
volleyball developed as a sport only during the First World War. Developed as an indoor
sport, the game did not immediately catch the imagination of the American masses. Thanks
to the efforts of the YMCA movement, the game spread to different countries and rapidly
became popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and many other nations. Deriving
the name from the fact that the players volley the ball across the net, the game became a
popular recreational sport among soldiers during the First and Second World Wars. The
International Volleyball Federation (now known as the FIVB, Federation of International
Volleyball) was formed on 20 April 1947 by 14 nations to make volleyball a popular
international sport. Mr. Paul Libard of France was the first president the first World
Championships were held in 1949 at Prague capital of erstwhile Czechoslovakia.
Volleyball was brought to India in the 1920s, as an exciting, highly competitive team
sport, wherein each player dominates in his own court without bodily contact to create a
difficult situation for the opponents, by J.H. Gray of the YMCA. Though volleyball, like
basketball, was devised as an indoor sport by the Americans, in India it became a very
popular outdoor activity. The low c the game also made it adaptable in rural settings.
Efforts were made in the 1950s to make the game an organised competitive sport in the
country. The game, in fact, caught on in the coastal areas especially in the harbours,
where it was played by the seamen in the shipyards. The efforts of the dedicated to
streamline the sport bore fruit in the formation of the Volleyball Federation of India
with Mr. F.C. Arora as the first president and Mr. Basu as the general secretary in the
1950s. The first international exposure was the participation of an Indian team in the
World Championships at Moscow in 1952. The first nati onal championship was held in 1952
and Mysore won the title defeating Pepsu in the final. Women soon took to the game and the
women's event also became a part of the national championship programme. The women made
international debut at the 1979 Asian championships in Hong. The Volleyball Federation of
India subsequently introduced the sub-junior National Championships for boys and girls.
Volleyball, which became a part of the Asian Games movement in 1958 at Tokyo, was
introduced in the Olympics in 1964. India, which won a gold medal in the men's event of
the volleyball championships in Tokyo in 1955, also won a bronze medal in the men's event
of the 1958 Asian Games and silver in the 1962 Jakarta Asiad, again in the men's event. In
the 1982 Asian Games at New Delhi, the Indian men finished fourth and in the next Asiad -
1986 at Seoul they went one rung up the ladder by winning the bronze.
In fact, it was during the 1980s, when Mr. Sivanti Adityan was the president of the VFI
and Mr. K. Murugan the secretary, the game received the necessary boost. An ardent
follower of the game, Mr. Adityan went out of the way in giving the Indian team the
necessary international exposure. The Indian men's team got the opportunity of playing
teams from Japan, China, France and the erstwhile USSR. The men's team also came under the
supervision of a Cuban coach. The Indian teams were also trained by coaches from the
erstwhile East Germany and Russia.
Though India as a team has not made much of an impact in the international scene, some
Indian players turned out as professionals for foreign club teams. Prominent among them
were the late Jimmy George, who played in Italy; Uday Kumar in Bahrain; Suresh Kumar
Mishra in Kuwait; and Sandeep Sharma, who has played and now settled down in Spain.
Apart from the National Championships including the Federation Cup for men and women, and
the youth nationals conducted on a national basis by the VFI, a number of volleyball
tournaments at various levels are conducted almost throughout the year in different parts
of the country. India also plays host to two international invitational tournaments for
the Allwyn Gold Cup and the Sivanti Adityan Gold Cup. |