Wapda team to feature in Asian Club Volleyball

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top team Wapda will feature in the Asian Club Volleyball Championship to be held at Naypyidaw, Myanmar, from July 30 to August 6.

This would be after long 13 years that a Pakistani club will be featuring in the continental club championship. In 2005 Habib Bank Limited (HBL) had featured in this event hosted by Pakistan in Islamabad.

A senior official of Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) said that the event would help some players of Pakistan to get some match practice ahead of the Asian Games slated to be held in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2. “Most of the players of Pakistan senior team are from Wapda and the event would help them to get some practice ahead of the Asian Games,” PVF chairman Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob told ‘The News’ on Monday. He said the return of Pakistani club to the Asian club fold would strengthen the clubs of the country.

Meanwhile Pakistan senior and junior teams are undergoing training at Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad under the Iranian coach Hamid Movahedi who recently coached the country’s youth team quite superbly in the Asian Men’s Under-18 Volleyball Championship in Tabriz, Iran. Although Pakistan finished 11th but the brigade only lost one game in the entire event and that too against top seed South Korea.

The format of the event prevented Pakistan’s colts to wrap-up their journey at a decent place in the 17-team event. As national senior team is to feature in the Asiad and the junior side is to take part in the 19th Asian Men’s Under-20 Championship in Manama, Bahrain, it is yet to be decided who will go with the junior side as a head coach. “It’s an issue. I was thinking that Movahedi would go with the senior side but he says that he has arranged some practice matches for the juniors against Iran and other nations ahead of the July 21-28 Manama event so it was necessary for him to go with the juniors,” he said. “But we will discuss the issue and soon we will decide about it,” said Yaqoob, also a former top police official. In the Asian Games Pakistan have been bracketed in Group B with Mongolia and second seed Iran. Yaqoob said his side would make it to the next stage.

“We will InshaAllah qualify,” Yaqoob said. “Mongolia is not that strong and we can beat that,” the official said. In the 20-team event of the Asiad Pakistan would begin their journey with the match against Mongolia on August 20. This will be followed by their match against Iran on August 22.