Volleyball camp to begin in September for Central Asian League

KARACHI: National volleyballers will assemble in the first week of September to kick-start their preparations for the Central Asian Volleyball Association League which will be hosted by Pakistan in Islamabad from November 20-27.

“Yes, inshaAllah, we will begin our training for the Central Asian event in the first week of September,” Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) chairman Chaudhry Yaqoob told ‘The News’ from Istanbul on Sunday.

“We will put 18 players in the camp. The players for the camp will be picked from the teams which recently featured in the Islamic Games and AVC Cup,” Yaqoob said.

“Murad will not be there as he will be going to Serbia to play league and he will be replaced by Fahad Raza, also a talented player,” said Yaqoob, a former top police official.

However, the venue for the training camp is yet to be decided. Pakistan teams trained at the POF Wah to prepare for the Islamic Games and the AVC Cup. Both the events were almost at the same time which forced PVF to form split teams which disturbed the balance of the outfits.

But for the Central Asian League, a tough team is expected to be prepared. “InshaAllah, every effort will be made to prepare a strong side,” Yaqoob said. Pakistan is also likely to feature in an invitational six-nation event in the UAE before the home event.

“We have been invited by a company which is going to stage an event in the UAE. It’s a free of cost event as the organisers will pay all the expenses of the teams and featuring in it will give our lot some match practice ahead of the Central Asian League in Pakistan,” Yaqoob said.

For the Central Asian league, Iran, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka have been put directly in the main event. Three other teams will join them through a qualifying round.

Asked how many nations have so far confirmed participation in the event, Yaqoob said the confirmation is yet to come. “Although officially confirmation is yet to come, it is almost certain that Iran and Kazakhstan will be there,” Yaqoob said.

Yaqoob hopes that Pakistan’s volleyball will get better with time. “Our volleyball is going up and I believe that in the next four to five years we will achieve the desired results in the sport. We have a lot of talent,” he said.

Commenting on Pakistan’s performance in the Islamic Games, Yaqoob said the nation had been bracketed in a very tough pool. “The big issue was that all tough teams had been clubbed in the same group. Pakistan had been placed with strong Iran, Qatar and Turkey. In the other group all four teams were of 26 and below rankings,” he said.

In the Islamic Games, Pakistan lost all their pool matches: against Iran 3-0, Turkey 3-1 and Qatar 3-2.

“Pakistan did well but after 20 points our boys lose confidence and this issue was also felt by the coach. We will work on it and hopefully the boys will do better in future,” Yaqoob said.

Yaqoob said that they were expecting Murad to do well but he was a bit weak as it seemed that he did not get the desired diet during his stay in Serbia.

“Aimal was also a bit down. But Musawar, Usman Faryad and Mustafa played outstanding volleyball,” the official said.

“We are making progress. We are also going to start our league on December 25 and it will be a huge step towards game development,” the official said.