Redemption time for Tamil Nadu?

Dec 13, 2010 |

Tags:

national volleyball championship

Tamil Nadu suffered heartbreak when Chennai organised the national volleyball championship last, six years ago. They bowed out in the quarterfinal league stage itself to leave their fans crest-fallen.

After losing to Railways in the quarterfinal league, Tamil Nadu went on to beat Kerala and Karnataka. Kerala, who had also defeated Karnataka, took on Railways in their final match. By that time, Tamil Nadu had finished their engagements. So, Railways and Kerala knew the points each had to win to secure their passage into the semifinals.

Kerala won the ‘friendly’ match against Railways, who had already sealed their place in the semis, to dash Tamil Nadu’s hopes. Losing a set against Karnataka came back to haunt the hosts.

J. Natarajan who was a member of the Tamil Nadu team in 2004 recalled the “bitter” experience. “It was an anticlimax. We all felt terrible after the Kerala-Railways match. Going out of the tournament we hosted before the semifinal stage hurts even today. But we had played into the hands of Kerala by losing a set against Karnataka,” he said.

Natarajan said the time has come to set the record straight. “Victory this year will go some way in erasing the disappointment of 2004. I believe this team will retain the title without much trouble because they don't have a strong challenge,” he added.

Incidentally, Velammal Group of Institutions sponsored the tournament in 2004 as well. MVM Velmurugan, CEO of Velammal, is confident that Tamil Nadu will go all the way this time. Velammal’s association with volleyball began with the nationals six years ago and the institution’s decision to sponsor the 59th edition could have stemmed from Velmurugan’s desire to see Tamil Nadu on the top. It’s a mission for him and Tamil Nadu.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/47279" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-21b897b441c7763ff525d155cd1dad62" value="form-21b897b441c7763ff525d155cd1dad62" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85714927" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>