Nigeria accepted after being scratched

Kolkata, July 31 (UNI) The 2nd Commonwealth Volleyball championship is setting new standards of hospitality by re-inducting Nigeria, earlier being scratched from the tournament for not arriving on time.

The management of the Championship could not get any wierder as they accommodated Nigeria after the team resurfaced today after missing two deadlines.

Till last night the Nigerian team remained untraced. Today they arrived at 8.50 am and despite the tall claims of a penalty action against the team for their disappearing act from the tournament, they get to play here.

Tournament director Ramana Rao, had earlier said that since the team had not given any explanation for their delay the control committee will scratch them from the tournament.

But today he said, '' They have come. We were happy and surprised. Then we thought why penalise them since they have come all the way and re-drew the schedule.'' ''If we go by the tournament rules, we have to scratch them, but we thought of giving them a chance,'' he said adding they had taken a lot of effort as they had just returned to Lagos playing the African championship in Algeria.

The championship itself, happening after 26 years saw its second casualty when the Nigerian team failed to arrive even after three rescheduling. England dropped out earlier.

According to Rao, the Nigerian team had initially confirmed their arrival via Dubai on Emirates Airlines on July 27.

Thereafter, Nigerian Volleyball Federation General Secretary Bode Alli Durotoye confirmed via e-mail that the 16-member team was headed for Nairobi in Kenya from Laos from where they would board the Kenya Airlines for Mumbai on July 29.

Accordingly the Volleyball Federation of India kept their Mumbai wing on alert and also booked tickets in the connecting Jet Airways for Kolkata. Initially it was learnt that the airlines was late by seven hours.

But another mail from Kenyan airlines confirmed that though the team had booked tickets for Mumbai, they failed to board the plane and later cancelled the tickets.

This left the organizers in a tizzy as they had to reschedule the event twice over with each of the two groups now having four teams.

Local organizing committee Rathin Raychoudhury said, ''We have incurred heavy losses. It's also a face loss.'' Asked for the amount, he said, ''It would amount to some 12 lakhs.'' ''We have sent a few e-mails but there is no confirmation from their end,'' he added.

Today he said, ''Now that they have come and are lodging in the same hotel, the loss factor is covered.'' So all is happy and as South African coach A Hamid Elwassimy said, ''Now the Nigerian team can enjoy Indian hospitality and curry.'' UNI