What Shah Rukh Khan and his band of girls in Chak De! India have done for Indian sports has come as a godsend.
Albeit a little grudgingly, people are hailing it as a film that has brought some focus on team sports like hockey in a cricket-crazed nation. Whatever the argument, the film has made a nation sit up and take notice of women’s sports at large.
And now it’s the turn of volleyball. Beyond Thought Marketing Pvt Ltd., (BTMS), a private body managed by professionals with expertise in sports and sports marketing, is all set to launch a hunt for — hold your breath — the first national women’s beach volleyball team! So all you ‘with-it’ girls, get ready to hit the beach as part of ‘Volleigirl’.
Talent scout
The BTMS will conduct the talent scout for Season-1 in September in eight states — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Goa — as these are actively involved in sports. Season-2 will look for talent from the North-East, where too sports is accorded priority.
Metrolife chatted with Director of BTMS, Mohak Gupta, who propounded the concept of ‘Volleigirl’, with the support of Volleyball Federation of India (VFI). “First, beach volleyball is hugely popular; it is among the fastest growing sports globally and is therefore commercially very viable. Secondly, India is open to a lot of new sports but is not playing it competitively. So there is an opportunity to build it. Thirdly, there is no ready talent pool, not even for regular volleyball in the country. So we are looking for girls who are physically the fittest and have a certain level of endurance required to play a strenuous sport like beach volleyball,” he said.
Girls from various colleges from the eight states will be invited by BTMS to apply for physical selections, irrespective of whether they have played the game or not, since emphasis will be on endurance levels. Of the 40 girls to be selected in Round-I, only 24 will make it to the final list of most promising beach volleyball players. These girls will be trained at Goa for about 40 days and will get to showcase their skills at the national beach volleyball championships to be held in Goa in November, said Gupta.
“January 2008 will see the announcement of the final four who will be India’s first Volleigirls. We will also promote them as the new genre of sporting icons and hope to showcase all this in a reality show and a music video. Chak De! India couldn’t have released at a better moment. It has done sports other than cricket a world of good. India has good volleyball players but lack of hype and marketing have resulted in poor audiences. Our aim to to have at least one team by 2020 that will take us to the Olympics,” said Gupta.
So do you have it in to become a ‘sporting’ beach babe?