Spikers need Europe tours to groom, says coach Movahedi

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Iranian volleyball coach Hamid Movahedi has said that the volleyball team would need tours of Europe if its standard is to improve.

“It is indeed a great need to give tours of Europe to the national team. If it holds camp in Europe and plays against the best sides its standard will be improved,” Movahedi told ‘The News’.

Having worked in the competitive volleyball environment in Iran, Movahedi knows that without investing heavily in volleyball, it would be difficult to improve its standard.

“Heavy investment is must for volleyball uplift in Pakistan,” the coach stressed.

“I must tell you that ten years ago Iran was the same as Pakistan in volleyball. But it started investing heavily in the sport, sending teams to Europe for training and establishing a quality league and you see Iran is among the world’s prominent side in volleyball now,” Movahedi said.

“I believe in Pakistani players. They have great potential but they need more exposure and top playing facilities, quality foods and equipment. If a player cannot take sound sleep and cannot take balanced diet during camp so how you can expect from him that he will deliver in an event,” said Movahedi who has been working as Pakistan’s coach for the last two years.

He said that in order to prepare for the Asian Championships and Asian Qualifiers for 2020 Olympics, effort would be made to hold the camp in early April.

“After returning from Thailand where Pakistan will be fielding in the Under-21 Asian Beach Volleyball Championships this month, we will try to hold camp of Pakistan’s senior side for the Asian Qualifiers for Olympics and Asian Championships in the first week of April.

“With this camp we will also hold a camp of Pakistan Under-23 team which will feature in the Asian Under-23 Championships in Myanmar next summer,” the coach said.

The Asian Seniors Men’s Volleyball Championships will be hosted by Iran from September 13-21 while the Asian Qualifiers for 2020 Olympics will be staged at a yet to be decided venue from January 6-12, 2020.

The Iranian, who guided Pakistan to an eighth-place finish in the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia, last year, said that he did not know how Pakistan would deliver in these events.

“I don’t know how we will perform. It all depends on facilities and exposure to the boys. Personally I have an ambitious preparatory plan but how to implement it is a huge problem. We even don’t have practice halls of international standard in Pakistan,” the coach said.

To a query, he said that seven to eight fresh faces would be seen in the senior national team’s camp for the two key assignments.