Volleyball Centenary
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Sri Lanka's national sport, Volleyball, is 100 years
Volleyball was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1916. Volleyball originally was introduced to the world by William J. Mogen of the United States of America in 1895. Since then volleyball has been spreading. Now this game has spread up to 220 countries in all the continentals. Introducing Volleyball in Sri Lanka Volleyball was introduced to Sri Lanka for the first time in 1916 by R. Vaulter Cammock, then Director of Physical Education of Colombo YMCA. The game caught on very quickly and Volleyball clubs sprang up quite quickly.
The Ceylon Volleyball Federation was formed on September 4, 1951 and received official recognition. Sir Richard Aluvihara was the first President of the Ceylon Volleyball Federation. T.C. Anandappa and D. Rajadurai were the first Secretaries of the Federation respectively. Milestones The Lankans had their first international success when the Men’s Volleyball Team of Sri Lanka won a bronze medal at the Mohamed Ali Jinnah Memorial ‘Gold Cup’ Tournament held in Karachi in Pakistan in 1959.
At the 1991 fifth South Asian Games the Lankan women’s team won a Gold medal. Sri Lanka School Boy’s Volleyball Team won a bronze medal at the second Asian School Boy’s Championship held in Hong 
Kong 2003. Thereafter a silver medal by Men’s Beach Volleyball Team at Asia Pacific Beach Volleyball Circuit in Bangladesh in 2009 and gold medals by both men and women at first South Asian Beach Games in 2011 are some high points of the game. In 1996 Volleyball and Beach Volleyball were added to the fray at the Atlanta Olympic Games.
The development of the game From 1983-1986 where Charita Rathwatta functioned as the President of the Board of control for Volleyball. Then from 2005-2015 Dilan Perera functioned as the President of the Federation. These periods can be introduced as a changing era of volleyball in Sri Lanka. Hence, it is important for all of us to recall the following verse which was added into the digest of ‘Volleyball Guide 4’ by Governor of Ceylon, Lord Soulbury in 1950.
Susil Ranasinghe
“Volleyball has become the national game of Ceylon, and a splendid game it is, it calls for a high degree of skill, agility physical fitness judgment and team work. It is inexpensive, needs very little ground and provides the maximum of exercise in the minimum of space and time.” The message
Before winding up my short message, I would like to draw the attention of the present volleyball authorities, volleyball players, coaches and the volleyball fans regarding the challenges ahead to be overcome. There are some goals to be achieved in this sphere.
By 2020 we would like to build up four teams — Men and Women Volleyball and Men and Women Beach Volleyball of international class. Sri Lanka Beach Volleyball team has already secured the 9th place in rankings in the the Beach Volleyball segment. Our next aim will be an international gold. It is our responsibility to provide our young players with necessary infrastructure facilities like indoor stadiums and new technologies for achieving this target and thereby we could mark this centenary of volleyball success which won two silver medals for men and women in SAF Games held recently and make our dreams a reality.
- Susil Ranasinghe Former General
Secretary Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation
(2005-2015)