The opening day of the Senior National Volleyball Championships being played at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru proved to be an entertaining affair but there was one incident that could leave a sour taste in many people’s mouths.
One of the Karnataka players, Ashwal Rai couldn't participate in his side’s match against Rajasthan, since the Volleyball Federation of India(VFI) had deemed the player as ‘ineligible’. Recently, the player had quit his job at the Indian Overseas Bank(IOB) in Chennai and asked for a transfer from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka.
Heading into the tournament, Jai was under the impression that he wouldn't face any roadblock while playing for Karnataka, but it didn't prove to be the case, despite him being thinking that all the necessary paperwork had been completed.
“There was a technical committee meeting on Friday. They could have decided it then instead of asking him to sit out after the toss. He has been with us for some time,” The Karnataka coach M.H.Kumara said.
This isn't the 1st instance when Rai was involved in such an issue. He faced eligibility issues during the Karnataka State-A Division League in October last year. The secretary of the Karnataka Volleyball Association K.Nandakumar had sent the required documents only by the end of December when the deadline for the submission of documents was June 30th 2015.
“On our part, we are technically correct and he will not play the entire tournament. But the control committee can change the decision if a meeting is held. The deadline was June 30, 2015. But we got it at the nth hour,” Ramavtar Singh, the secretary-general of the (VFI) said, as quoted by The Hindu.
“I had all the documents and had submitted it to the VFI. When I got the reply from the VFI, I didn’t inform the State coach because we had all the documents ready.” Nandakumar said.
