No hope for volleyball return in October, says Nyaberi

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) first vice-president Charles Nyaberi says it is unlikely volleyball action can restart next month as planned following the Government’s decision to uphold its ban on contact sports activities.

KVF had set the month of October as the tentative action-return date for the National League season following a seven-month forced-stop by the coronavirus pandemic but Nyaberi says recent directive on contact-sports would delay their plans.

However, he told Citizen Digital that KVF has contacted the Ministry of Sports to allow top league and national women’s volleyball team, Malkia Strikers, return to action ahead of the international assignments lined-up next year.

Last weekend, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave the biggest indication of gradual return of all kind-of-sports after he directed Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed to fast track the resumption of other sports barely, a fortnight after she gave non-contact sports go-ahead to restart.

“We’ve appealed to the ministry to allow minimal training for the Malkia Strikers squad and the restart of the KVF league because early next year our teams will be flying out for Africa championships while Malkia Strikers will be preparing for the Olympic Games.

“We can’t announce the exact dates for the resumption of volleyball until the ministry clears us but we still hope we will return to courts next month because we’ve given them (ministry) all the protocols that we will follow if they will give us go ahead. Some clubs have, since early this month, resumed training albeit in small groups,” said Nyaberi.

KVF is set to implement a new calendar in conformity with that of International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) when the government gives the green light to contact sports resumption.

Kenya’s national regular league has been traditionally operating from February to December but the new format will see the annual league run from October to May.