CHENNAI: A six-year itch was finally scratched late on Thursday night. After a series of near-misses, the Tamil Nadu men’s volleyball team ascended to the peak of the Indian volley scene, winning the national championship with a 3-1 (25-18 25-21 21-25 25-23) victory over Railways in the final.
After last lifting the title in 2013, Tamil Nadu had hovered around the top but always fell just about short. “After 2013, we reached the final twice,” says Mohan Ukkrapandian, one of the two members from the Tamil Nadu team in the Indian squad for the Olympic qualifiers that was announced on Friday. “In 2014, we reached the final and lost to Railways. Last year again, we reached the final and lost to Karnataka. We were getting chances but we weren’t utilising it. So this time, we wanted to avoid the mistakes we were making. The mentality was that we had to win this tournament at any cost.”
And they did what they set out to do in spectacular style. Their only loss of the tournament came in the group stages against arch-rivals Kerala. But they recovered from that in style, beating defending champions Karnataka 3-1 in the semifinals. They had put it past Railways in the group stages and they repeated that feat in the finals as well.
What made the difference for the team this time around, according to India international GR Vaishnav, was the camaraderie between the senior stars and the junior players. “The mix between seniors and juniors this time was very good,” he says. “As seniors, Naveen (Raja Jacob), me and Ukkrapandian, we know how to make points and how to handle tough situations. The juniors provided us the explosive power and sharpness in attack. So this compatibility between the seniors and juniors helped us a lot.”
Preparations too were ideal, thanks to the initiative taken by the state association. When the team first got together in December, they realised that their fitness levels were not the highest. “We brought in a very good trainer and worked on our fitness levels,” says Vaishnav. “For seven to ten days, we only concentrated on fitness.”
The task now, for Tamil Nadu, is to build on this. That, though, is easier said than done. Six years ago, Tamil Nadu were in a similar position with an exciting batch of youngsters complementing experienced seniors. The state looked set to dominate Indian volley for years to come. But then, they lost a bunch of youngsters to Kerala and Railways, among them the highly-touted Jerome Vinith and GS Akhin (both of whom are in the current national side). Vaishnav believes that the current side can stick together. “Nine players from the current side are already based in Tamil Nadu,” he says. “So I think this team will stay together for another 4-5 years.”
Ukkrapandian too believes that this team has the potential to be something special but stressed the need for the youngsters to step up.“The youngsters have to prove themselves and they have to play more. They have (to) take more responsibility and think that they have to play better than the seniors.”