ROLLBALL: India gets golden success in Asian Championship 2024

By Jaswant Claudius (Senior Sports Journalist/Commentator)

Goa : This sport is desperate to make its mark in the world
When the players run on the clean smooth court before their performance with the help of specially made skating shoes in Goa’s Manohar Parrikar Indoor Stadium, the eyes of the person watching this scene whether on television, YouTube or Facebook or any other broadcasting technology suddenly cannot believe how this sport of catching, throwing, bouncing and dribbling the ball with the help of skating can be played at such a high speed. Whenever the matches were played between the men and women teams of the senior category of Asian countries in Rollball from 16 to 19 December in this indoor stadium located in Naveli, Margao, Goa, the eyes of the spectators present in the ground as well as those enjoying the match through the latest medium were wide open. The reason for this is that in this sport, the players attack each other’s goal posts in the blink of an eye to score a goal. This game of two halves of 20 minutes each becomes fast paced as soon as it starts. The speed of players running on the flat, solid court due to skating creates excitement in the game of rollball and it reaches its peak when a foul occurs.
In the 4th Asian Rollball Championship 2024, there were many occasions when it seemed that the players would not be able to stop the ball and the ball would go out of the boundary line, but this did not happen many times. The player completes the game of rollball by riding on the skates, but we should not forget that it is the player who controls the skates and not the shoes. This is the reason why mutual coordination and harmony is of special importance in this game. Apart from this, to maintain the hope of victory or defeat, it is very important for the player to control himself as well as the skating. On the other hand, keeping the ball in possession with discipline and cleverness and then delivering the ball to the right player is the result of hard work. The game of rollball was born in Pune city of India by an ordinary physical teacher Raju Dabhade between 2002 and 2003. To make this game interesting, the rules of the game have been changed continuously since 2003. The biggest feature of rollball is that every complaint related to this game is decided immediately by the judges during the game itself. Now, in case of any doubt in the decision, provision has been made for the players of both the teams to demand video referral. This is the reason why this game of Rollball is the fastest growing game in the world today.
Today, Rollball is played in all the continents of the world. Due to which, the International Rollball Association is trying to include it in the Olympic Games. Men’s and women’s teams from 11 Asian countries participated in Goa. In both the categories, India faced Iran in which the Indian team was successful. The way Indian players performed in the entire tournament makes it clear that intensive training is provided to Indian players. In the last three editions of 2011, 2016, 2019, the Indian men’s team was the Asia Cup winner. This time again, by winning this championship, the Indians have scored a hat-trick of wins. The way Iran played in both the categories, it is clear that Rollball is gradually gaining its dominance all over the world.