The newly elected President of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation (SLVF) Kanchana Jayaratne, said that several important decisions will be taken in the future with the aim of promoting the national sport of volleyball in the country and bringing it up to international level under his leadership in the next four years (2021-2024).
“Also, a survey will be conducted at the Divisional Secretariat level on the distribution of volleyball in the country and information will be obtained on the volleyball clubs, sportsmen, sports information and number of playing fields in the country. The census will be conducted at school level in collaboration with the School’s Volleyball Association, the Ministry of Education, the Provincial Ministry of Education and Sports and through statutory volleyball associations (Armed Forces, Police). After obtaining the data, the Volleyball Federation Technical Committee and the Development Committee will formulate and implement a special programme for the development of volleyball in Sri Lanka,” Kanchana Jayaratne said at a media briefing held on April 23 at Monarch Hotel, Thalawathugoda.
The “Talent Hunt” programme will be launched to unearth talented young spikers from all over the island. Also the district volleyball training pools have been established in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports to conduct junior and youth tournaments regularly and are hoping to conduct Asian Championship once in every two years.
Two beach volleyball and indoor volleyball tournaments will be held annually with the participation of foreign players and steps will also be taken to update the knowledge of coaches and umpires, including beach volleyball.
All coaches and umpires will be registered under SLVF while steps have been taken to issue identity cards. Felicitation ceremonies will be organized to pay tribute to national volleyball players, coaches and umpires to encourage them.
An "Information Centre" will be established containing information on volleyball players representing senior, junior and youth teams, including coaches, referees, administrators and special events related to Sri Lankan volleyball since the inception of the Volleyball Federation in 1951. Meanwhile, the "Volleyball Museum" will be established at the Volleyball House, Dadalla in Galle, the President of SLVF further said.
The programme will be prepared with the Ministry of Education and the Schools Volleyball Association to introduce an annual volleyball big match between two major schools such as a cricket big match. The Beach Volleyball League in collaboration with Dialog will be started from this year and steps will be taken to be hold it annually.
The SLVF also hopes to unearth talented volleyball players from the Estate Sector and encourage them to join the existing clubs in the provinces so that they would one day represent the country in volleyball bringing much joy to their parents and friends.
In conclusion he said that he hopes to request the Government to declare a “Volleyball Day” annually which would be a boon to the sport.
