Prabha’s jump from kabaddi to volleyball

If Naveen Raja Jacob of Indian Overseas Bank was the flag-bearer about 10 years ago donning the country colours with distinction, a group of players led by S Prabhagaran of ICF has moved up the ladder now. Interestingly, it is not IOB alone that is contributing to the growth of volleyball in the state, but institutions like SRM and ICF have also come to the forefront.

S Prabhagaran, a part of the national squad, is basically from Puducherry where his parents lived. He lost his father and was dabbling with kabaddi when he was in school as his brother played the game. He joined SAI, Puducherry and played for them for two years. 

The 29-year-old senior clerk with ICF had moved to Chennai eight years ago when he was spotted by the then sports secretary of ICF Wilson Cherian who added him to his squad.

“The ICF team had just been formed and I was lucky to be there at that time,” says the India spiker, whose big break came when he represented India in the President Cup in Kazakhstan in 2011 and won the gold medal. The same year, he was selected to play for the senior Indian team in the Asian championship which secured sixth place. 

Prabha was part of the Indian team that won fourth place in the 2012 Asia Cup in Vietnam and also the side that secured the silver medal in the China Challenge the same year. He continued to be in the national team in 2013 but his best was to come in 2014 when he played in the Asian Games at Incheon and the silver-medal winning Asian Cup in Korea. 

“The Korea Asian Cup was something special for me as I got the Best Attacker award in the meet,” recalls Prabha, who continued to excel in 2015 and 2016 as well.