South's success story

Of all the zones, it is the South that conducts its regional tournaments regularly in major sports.

It is also good to see the South Zone States — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry — take the zonal events on rotation and allot it to the rural centres. The rural centres also love to host regional championships.

This year, the South Zone senior volleyball championship was held at Thiruttani, under the auspices of Thiruvallur district association. It was organised in a makeshift place. But the organisers did a good job, thanks to the sponsors of the event. The teams were provided a decent accommodation.

"On marriage days we had to adjust a bit. But otherwise there was no problem," said an organiser. The accommodation was close to the venue and the players did not have to commute long distance.

More than that the crowd response was fantastic, with the venue always overflowing. They stood and watched the matches for four hours.

"It serves the real purpose of organising an event. We want to encourage them. We want new people and different venues in future. We cannot depend on the same organisers and the same sponsors. Once they conduct an event like this they want more and bigger events. Now Thiruttani wants to host a bigger championship," said Martin Sudhakar, secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Volleyball Association.

Coming to the championship, Kerala won both the men's and women's titles. Last year Karnataka won both the titles.

M. C. Raman