Volleyball Association of Maldives (VAM)’s president Mohamed Ranesh (Raney) has mentioned that the friendly match between Maldives and Sri Lanka’s volley team would be a fresh new start for the nation’s volleyball. This match is played in order to prepare for the upcoming Central Zone Men’s Senior Volleyball Championship in Bangladesh this month. 

Raney was appointed as the VAM’s president in April. He was unable to carry on volleyball activities as much as desired due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation at the time. But in recent months, volleyball activities have started to be held.

Maldives Volleyball Team will play against Sri Lanka’s team tomorrow night, Friday, and Sunday. Raney mentioned that other than just looking at the scores of these matches, there are many more lessons that can be learned from these matches.

“After Covid, we have started a new chapter, and this match against Lanka is volleyball’s new start. This match is really important as this is the first match that our National Team would play after being rested for so long,” said Raney.

In 2019 also before the Central Zone Tournament, there were 3 matches played in Male’. Maldives lost all 3 matches, but they were improving match after match. Maldives lost the first match in straight 3 sets. But in the next 2 matches, Maldives lost by 1-3 sets.

Raney mentioned that what happened during that time was that Maldives team was under a lot of pressure as they haven’t played in their own home in front of a lot of supporters representing their country before and that it won't be repeated again.

“The biggest pleasure I get from this match is that the 30 junior players in our Excellence Program would get the opportunity to watch an international match played in our own ground and that they get to see how the National Team plays,” said Raney.

The Excellence Program is a program started by Raney for the future of Maldivian Volleyball. The players would be given proper training and improve their level of skill so that they can one day play for the National Team.

The most recent tournament that the National Team participated in was the South Asian Games held in Nepal’s Kathmandu in 2019. During that tournament, Maldives team was coached under Serbia’s experienced coach Milorad Kijac. Last year during the Covid 19 pandemic, Milorad’s contract had expired, and he had left the team. Maldives team’s Head Coach for the friendlies and Central Zone tournament will be Mohamed Saajidh (Kaattey).

-- Article by Adhadhu