Karnataka may be robbed of the services of their key player Ashwal Rai for the duration of their campaign in the 64th Senior National Volleyball Championship owing to an eligibility issue.
Rai was forced to sit out the inaugural match against Rajasthan by the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) officials who stated that the Karnataka Volleyball Association submitted the transfer request of the player after the deadline which ended last June 30.
Rai, who resigned from the Indian Overseas Bank, headquartered in Chennai, in his desire to play for his State in the championship, submitted the No Objection Certificate (NOC) along with required documents from the organisation to the VFI but the governing body denied his transfer stating the request had come at the 11th hour.
Right after the toss, the match referees, following the instructions from VFI secretary Ramavathar Singh Jakhar, asked Rai to sit out.
Jakhar responded to the issue saying Rai will not be allowed to participate for the entire tournament. “As per the rules, all transfer requests finish on June 30. But we got request mail from KVA on December 31. And KVA did not send us a requisition letter seeking the transfer. Thus I don’t see him playing in this tournament but a control committee meeting will take the final call on Sunday."
The KVA Secretary K Nandakumar revealed that he had received the objection letter from the VFI on Friday but said that because he had all the necessary documents, he didn’t inform the State team about the response from VFI.
In October last year, during the State ‘A’ Division meet, MEG & Centre protested against Rai’s representation for ITI, saying he was an employee of IOB and he had not submitted the NOC.
Published 02 January 2016, 20:00 IST