Volleyball: Cash-stripped federation sending team to Bulgaria

Pakistan to play practice matches in Qatar ahead of Olympics qualifier.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) will send its team to Bulgaria on June 2 to take part in the Olympic qualifiers.

The team, which was originally scheduled to travel to Italy via Iran, will now have a stop-over in Qatar for practice matches before heading to Bulgaria. The new itinerary, a more expensive one, has irked PVF President Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob.

“This trip will be more costly,” Yaqoob told The Express Tribune. “We're already facing problems in raising Rs4.5 million for the trip.”

Talking about the team’s chances of qualifying for the Olympics, Yaqoob said that Pakistan will be playing Bulgaria, who are ranked fifth in Europe, while Egypt is the African champion and France is a strong side. Therefore, he stated, it would be optimistic to expect too much.

Meanwhile, he added that the biggest drawback was that the federation had to prepare the team in the absence of a foreign coach. The PVF was in talks with the Cuban federation and despite an assurance from the Cuban ambassador, the coach failed to arrive on time. “The Cuban federation told us that they can send the coach to Qatar, but it’s too late for it now.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2012.