Pak junior volleyball camp later this month

KARACHI: Pakistan will begin their preparation for the Asian Junior Volleyball Championship in Islamabad later this month, a top official of Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) said on Monday.

“We are going to hold trials in different regions of the country and hopefully will hold a training camp later this month,” PVF secretary Shahid Kamal told ‘The News’.

“Initially we wanted to hold trials at one place but the idea was dropped. Then we decided that we should hold trials at different centres and the shortlisted players should be assembled in Islamabad for final trials,” Shahid said.

The Asian Junior Championship is to be held in Taiwan in July.

Pakistan were not part of the last Asian Junior Championship held in Manama in 2014.

“The trials are being held in Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Sialkot and Narowal,” he said.

Shahid said 25 players would be picked for the camp who would be coached by Mazhar Hussain and Khalid Waqar.

He said the boys born in 1997 and after are eligible for the trials. He said that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has been written about the PVF’s plan of a camp.

“We are waiting for the Board’s reply. I hope we will hear good news from the PSB,” the official said.

To a query, Shahid said that no player of the Pakistan team that took part in South Asian Games in India recently could be inducted in the junior side.

“No one of that team can be included in the junior lot as the youngest player of that team which featured in South Asian Games was born in 1994,” Shahid clarified.

In the 36-year history of the continental event, Pakistan have won only one medal — a bronze in 2008 in Tehran. Iranian coach Ali Reza Moameri was Pakistan’s coach then.

At that time most of Pakistan’s senior team players were part of the junior side because of their young age.

Recalling that achievement Shahid said at that time Pakistan had a good “young batch”.

But he was quick to add that the country still had talent and he hoped that a strong side could be formed for the continental assignment.

“It’s time for us to focus on the young blood. No doubt young talent is coming but we need to groom it and for that we will need government support,” he said.

Meanwhile, PVF chairman Mohammad Yaqoob told this correspondent that a foreign tour ahead of the Asian Junior Championship was certainly in the plan. “We want to send our team abroad ahead of the Asian Junior Championship but it is not confirmed yet as we will need support. We have written to the PSB that volleyball needs state funding as our level has gone down because of lack of the government’s help during the last four years,” Yaqoob said.

“Once we were one of the top teams in Asia but now have lost to Sri Lanka in South Asian Games. Without state funding, it’s difficult to develop any game,” he said.

He added that the Board had also been told that the PVF needed a good foreign coach. “We want to work on key areas but it will depend on the finances. I plan to meet the top brass of the Allied Bank Limited (ABL). It would be good if the bank agreed to go with us for the development of the sport,” Yaqoob said.