How Assam’s Brahmaputra Volleyball League is transforming grassroots sports

In the twilight of his volleyball career, Abhijit Bhattacharya started thinking of ways to give back to the game. He had his answer one morning in 2009 when he bumped into a few teenagers who sat despondent with a punctured ball by their side in Thelamara, Assam. “Buying them a new ball was a temporary measure. The idea was to make it sustainable,” says the former captain of the national men’s volleyball team

On a whim, he put together a one-day tournament the next weekend. By afternoon, a crowd had gathered around the mud court. With the enthusiastic talent in the middle and the vociferous support they got, Bhattacharya, 47, knew he was on to something.

It laid the foundation for the Brahmaputra Volleyball League (BVL) that was launched in 2020. From 50 teams in season 1, the sixth edition last year had 400 teams from 30 districts of Assam. Around 5,000 players featured across two categories (U-16 and U-12), with an equal number of girls’ and boys’ teams.

Word on the league’s popularity reached Fabio Azevedo, president of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), who travelled to India last year. What he saw in Tezpur was heartening—an entire community volunteering with their time and resources to keep the tournament ticking. There were no banners announcing sponsors nor a stage to seat the special guests, Azevedo and Olympic champion Vladimir Grbić. “We didn’t want the children to think that Olympians are from a different planet, (we wanted to show) that they too could be there some day,” Bhattacharya says.

Last month, Bhattacharya’s work was recognised by the International Olympic Committee through the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champions Award. “I’m just the face of it, this is a collective effort. It all unfolds seamlessly today through the unconditional support of individuals in so many places,” he says.

Bhattacharya had been away from the state for several years, either turning out for India between 1996-05, or busy at work in the ONGC office, where he is with the CSR team. Spending time at home allowed him to take the pulse of the popularity of volleyball, though he soon realised there was little in terms of structure. The first few years were spent addressing specific needs: sourcing a ball or net, the odd tournament to encourage competition and setting up a hostel in Besseria near Tezpur, all with the help of friends.

In 2019, Bhattacharya’s Assam Volleyball Mission 100 started out by distributing a hundred balls and supporting 100 new centres across the state. It was during the pandemic that Bhattacharya first started thinking about a competitive grassroots league. He would conduct online volleyball sessions for the children of Monomoy tea estate workers. The kids were delighted to see who could record the most underhands—similar to keepy-uppies in football—all with a cloth ball that Bhattacharya had taught them to make. Once the lockdown eased, he considered organising matches between neighbouring villages—a home-away format on consecutive weekends. The communities agreed to host the visiting team as well as serve meals; some offered to cover transport costs.

That idea grew into BVL. For the inaugural season, Bhattacharya assigned pools to the 50 participating teams (17 girls and 33 boys) from 16 districts of Assam. This was competitive exposure at minimal cost.

The league unfolds towards the end of the year, keeping in mind exams, holidays and the weather. Fund-raising has been an organic process. One can own a team for ₹15,000 and the owners are members of the local community, besides Bhattacharya’s friends, relatives and teammates. Former badminton international Aparna Popat bought in, as did sports writer Sharda Ugra. Of the 400 teams last year, about 300 could find sponsors; BVL funded the rest through the corpus gathered over the years.

The league format ensures enough matches for the players. Each village first competes in their respective districts, where the champion qualifies for the zonals. The winner from each of the eight zonals makes the cut for the Super League. This month, the BVL will also feature the first edition of the Elite League, a six-team franchise model for girls and boys over 16 years.

“In the initial stage, we let the communities schedule matches and just keep track of results. This decentralised, grassroots model keeps it ticking,” he says.

Bhattacharya has identified coaches and senior players to guide players and organises clinics where they can hone their skills. These individuals are then handed the task of grooming other coaches in the district.

The logistics are often challenging. Jerseys made in Meerut—customised with team colours and sizes, flashing the player’s name as well as the village—bundled on a train to save on courier charges, collected in Guwahati, before being transported and delivered to the teams. Around 100 matches on some weekends, requiring hundreds of players to move across the state. And special care for the under-12s, who gather at one venue for the league.

Though he knew it would be a task, Bhattacharya insisted on an equal number of girls’ and boys’ teams in the Super League. Some parents willingly sent their daughters, others required coaxing. “A few girls went missing once they hit puberty, so it was important to talk about it openly. We invited Simply Sports Foundation to organise sessions on menstrual hygiene to sensitise coaches and spread awareness among the senior girls,” Bhattacharya says.

The league has had a direct impact on volleyball in Assam.

The sub-junior and junior state teams feature a majority of players from the BVL. Bhattacharya highlights the success of the under-17 girls, who reached the quarter-finals of the Nationals for the first time this year. And the under-14 side that beat favourites Kerala at the School Nationals in 2025.

It’s a contrast to how the sport was played in Assam a few decades ago, a popular past-time on paddy fields and in village squares. Bhattacharya was a budding badminton player at the time. A chance meeting with coach Dibyajyoti Bhagawati led him to volleyball at the age of 10 . “His dream was to see an Assamese in the Indian national team. To identify tall boys, he went around shoe shops in Tezpur looking for individuals with big feet. Since my father wore size 10, he reached out to him. His passion for the game changed my life,” Bhattacharya says.

Much like Bhattacharya is shaping the future of the next generation of volleyball players from Assam these days.

Shail Desai is a Mumbai-based freelance writer.