Hosts eye winning start

Hosts Bangladesh are looking forward to making a winning start in the Bangabandhu Asian Senior Men's Central Zone International Volleyball Championship when they take on Nepal in the opening match at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Mirpur today.

Bangladesh beat Nepal in group stages on way to clinching the title in the second edition of the championship at home in 2016, but they lost against the same opposition in Kathmandu in two friendly matches last year. 

The hosts, who skipped the third edition of the championship in Maldives last year, have set their sights on regaining the title by taking home advantage and implementing new techniques that they have been trying to adopt under Iranian coach Alipour Aroji.

The absence of injured Al Zabir is a blow for the home side, even though Mohammed Kaiser Hamid looks like an able replacement for him.

“Zabir played well last time but this time he is not in the squad due to illness. It would have been better had he been in the squad. But we are confident we can play well even without him,” Kaiser said. “I am ready to take the role of Zabir because I have been playing volleyball since 2009.”

“Our strategy in the championship overall will be to play defensive but we will play all-out against Nepal. If we can make a good start, our confidence will be boosted and we can carry the momentum till the end,” continued Kaiser, who missed the 2016 edition due to a shoulder injury.      

Explaining the reasons behind the defensive strategy, Kaiser said, “It is easy to collect points from a defensive strategy because you can earn points straight by blocking opponents while you need three steps to get points from an attacking strategy. Besides, the height of the Central Asian players is more than ours, so it will be wiser for us to block them instead of going on the offensive.”

Nepal, who finished third in the last edition, are also confident about making a winning start. They have had a good preparation in Denmark ahead of this tournament.

“Last year, we won a bronze medal in Maldives and this time we want to win a gold medal because all the teams are equal in terms of strength,” Nepal coach Jagadish Prasad said. “We have been playing against Bangladesh over the last 10 years. Bangladesh and Nepal are on the same level.”

Prasad informed that they have played against Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau and Bangladesh as part of their preparations, winning all of those matches.