Volleyball takes centre stage
Bangladesh are aiming to reach the final of the
DBBL Asian Senior Men's Central Zone Volleyball Championship, which begins at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Dhaka today.
The hosts will take on Maldives in the opening fixture of Pool B today, with Kyrgyzstan and Nepal being the other two teams of this pool. Pool A consists of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Top two teams from each pool will advance to the semifinals of this seven-nation championship.
Bangladesh, who have never played against any national team beyond the South Asian region, will have the unique opportunity to rub shoulders against the higher-ranked Central Asian nations in the first-ever international volleyball tournament to be held in Bangladesh.
“We have been out of international tournament for the last five years. So it is a good opportunity for the players to earn some experience and make this tournament a memorable one by playing in the final,” hoped Bangladesh coach Emdadul Haque on eve of the championship.
Bangladesh squad consists of 12 players, out of whom only three have experience of playing international any tournament which they got from playing in the 2010 SA Games.
“We are trying to play modern volleyball which is practiced worldwide and we are hoping to implement that in this tournament,” said Emdadul. “If we can play the way we have been practicing since February 12, we can hope to produce good results.”
The coach informed that they have come out of the traditional W-formation and inserted new three-four men reception while sometimes keeping three to five attackers active during the game.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Volleyball Federation (BVF) has taken all necessary steps to make the championship a success. The Asian Volleyball Confederation's first vice president Essa Hamzah Alfailakawi, India's volleyball federation president Chaudhary Avadhes Kumar and Iran's volleyball federation president Dr Davarzanil are expected to be present during the opening ceremony today.
BVF president Atiqul Islam informed that the federation are bearing all the expenditure of the Nepal team, who had initially decided to pull out of the championship following the devastating earthquake last month.
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