'Got around 250-300 congratulatory messages'

Although volleyball was once widely practiced around the country, the sport began to lose its popularity in recent times until the men's senior national side recently started attracting attention after finishing as champions and runners-up on a few occasions in the Asian Senior Men's Central Zone International Volleyball Championship. The youth volleyball team followed in those footsteps, surprisingly finishing fifth in the just-concluded 21st Asian Men's Under-20 Volleyball Championship in Bahrain. Captain Tanvir Hossain Tonmoy was one of architects behind that success and the 6ft 2in 19-year-old spoke to The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman about their thrilling journey in the 17-nation tourney among other topics. The excerpts are below:

The Daily Star (DS): What was the team's target in Bahrain and what was the secret that helped you defy the odds?

Tanvir Hossain (TH): To be honest, we did not much hope in such a high-level competition, especially considering we were participating after a long time. Our mentality was to win one of the two group matches against Iraq or Australia to make it to the second round, but the win over Iraq in the first match changed everything. We grew a lot in confidence because Iraq finished fourth in the last edition of the championship. We barely had any idea of any of our opponents, but we started believing that we could do something. 90 people at the stadium predicted that Iraq would beat us handily but in the end we emerged as group champions and advanced to the round featuring the top 12.

DS: Was that burgeoning confidence the only factor behind those results?

TH: Actually, 10 players out of the 12 in the squad were from BKSP so we had a good understanding because we spent a lot of time together at BSKP. The bottom line is that the preparation was really good. We worked hard and had two months of training.

DS: Of your five matches, three went down to the wire and demanded a deciding fifth set. Despite that, you came out triumphant against mighty teams like Qatar and China. How did you do that under so much pressure?

TH: The players have experience in the senior national team so that helped us a lot when it came to getting out of tight situations. There were also players with experience in the premier volleyball league. Finally, we had really good preparation. I practiced for seven to eight hours per day instead of the usual six.

DS: How much did Iranian coach Alipour Aroji influence the squad?

TH: Our local coaches also did a wonderful job in the first month before Aroji conducted the practice matches. He also worked towards rectifying the mistakes we made. He basically improved our skills and made a winning combination for matches.

DS: What are your next assignments?

TH: I think five players from the U-20 team are set to join the U-23 national team, which will play an invitational tournament in Dubai this month. They will then return home to prepare for October's Bangabandhu U-23 Central Zone Volleyball Championship in Dhaka. We really want to do even better at home.

DS: How do you see the future of volleyball in Bangladesh?

TH: Bangladesh usually participate in less international competitions, so it is tougher to produce good results. Nations likes Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka did not send their teams to the Asian U-20 Volleyball Championship, but our president dared to send us on the back of good preparation. We repaid his faith. Iran, the eventual champions of the U-20 championship, have been together for last five years. So, if our U-23 team can stay together for the next three years, I believe we can also become champions in the Central Zone championship. If there are age-group teams that play international tournaments regularly, we can hope for a good future for the country's volleyball.

DS: What changes have you noticed after such a stellar showing in the U-20 championship?

TH: Today [Thursday], some people I was unfamiliar with identified me as a volleyball player. I felt almost unrecognisable despite representing the national team before, but Asian U-20 championship gave me a new identity. One person from Saudi Arabia also called me to inquire about different things. After beating Iraq, we all were allowed to use our phones for one-and-a-half hours and I got around 250-300 messages. I still haven't read all of them. In Bahrain, I became acquainted with some Korean and Australian players while a Thai player hung out in our room before our departure. We also got a good response, especially after beating China.