New rules lead to big league folly ball’

Kozhikode, April 6: The matches may have been far from thrillers, but the rural folk who came from faraway places in packed buses to watc...

Kozhikode, April 6: The matches may have been far from thrillers, but the rural folk who came from faraway places in packed buses to watch some of the top teams of the country in action in the preliminary leg of the National Volleyball League, did not return without having fun.

“If this is how they can play after hours of practice, I can form a scratch-outfit with my friends and beat some of the teams hollow,” teased this bloke with a cheeky grin in Mukkam.

Daft follies at the net and in the backcourt by both men and women left the crowd in splits almost daily. It was obvious that the coaches had not yet fathomed the new rules of the game which were clearly conceived to penalise the teams who failed to minimise their errors.

What made it worse was the fact that although the teams had ample scope to make amends, what with it being a league championship, they seldom failed to repeat their mistakes.

“The new rules have done the weaker teams a big favour as there is vast scope for them now to upset astronger team or two,” said a top Volleyball Federation of India official. “The first team to score 20 points in a set has invariably walked away with the set which has almost taken away the charm of close finishes which were so common in old-time volleyball. Moreover, the five-set nerve-knotting matches have vanished.

“As a result, we can call a team strong or stronger only if such a team comes up with a string of resounding victories, say, like the Railway women’s team,” he added.

The general feeling was that the importance of blocks at the net had taken a new dimension as the rally-point’ system gave little room for the front-line to relax. The failure of single and double-blockers immediately hit the passing department as the first passes refused to go straight to the setters.

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The need of the hour is a comprehensive crash course to make the coaches aware of the nuances to cash in on the rally-point system. Unless the top teams and coaches of the country grasp the tricks and technique to scorequick points, the new rules may well spell India’s doom at the international level sooner than later, especially in the Asian circuit where the Indian men’s team has won laurels in the past.

Something for the VFI to mull over.