Indian spikiers to take on Pakistan in friendship series

Visakhapatnam, Aug 6 (UNI) Indian Spikiers with their good show at Commonwealth Volleyball Championship will take on Pakistan in the first of the five test series at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here.

Like Cricket and Hockey, the first ever Volleyball series is also expected to be a big draw with the crowd.

Thanks to the initiation of S.Kodanda Ramaiah, the VFI Vice-President, both the national federations agreed for the five- test friendship series on a reciprocal basis. After winning the Central Asian Volleybal Championship in Pakistan in June, India drew the four test series against Pakistan 2-2.

Although the India and Pakistani volleybal teams regularly meet in international tournaments, this is the first test series between them.

The Indian team after the departure of Brazilian coach Augusto Sebatini in April this year, with G E Sridharn as the chief coach, brought in some memorable victories in just three months. In June this year India won the gold medal at Asia Central Volleyball Championship at Pakistan, finished runner up in the just concluded Commonwealth Volleyball championship at Kolkata. Sridharan is confident of the team putting up a good performance in this test series.

Led by Srikanth and with Sanjay Kumar, Sube Singh, Kapildev, G Pradep and libero S.Siva Rajan, the team is closely knit and technically superior to their neighbours, at least on paper.

Even though some of the players Vijesh, Ukkrapandian, Somnath, Mandeeep Singh, Kiran Philip and Ankit are left out of the team that played in the Commonwealth Championship,the team is confident of winning the series.

FIVB director and former Indian coach Ramana Rao, however, warned Indians against being complacant. ''After the good show at Kolkata against Australia and South Africa, Indians should not take their arch rival lightly, as Pakistan drew the 4 test series in Pakistan and finished just behind India in the Commonwealth Volleyball'' he added.

The Pakistan team is relatively younger and is building up for the next Asian Games under head coach Stefan G Dimitrov, who represented Bulgaria in 1980 Moscow Olympics, where it won the silver medal and also represented Bulgaria in 1977 World Cup in Japan and 1978 World Championships in Italy.

Speaking to newspersons, Dimitrov said, 'we are building a team for the next Asian Games and our young players can put up a good fight against Indian. With new libero Ishfaq Hussain coming into the team I hope the team will overcome deficiencies'.

Teams: India: P.S.Srikanth (Cap), G Pradeep, Vibin M George, S Sivarajan (Libero), Suresh Godara, Sanjay Kumar, Sube Singh, Jetendra Singh, K P Shaheem, Guruchand Singh, Shelton Moses, K J Kapildev. Chief Coach: G.E.Sridharan, Asst Coach: S.Karimulla, Trainer: S.T.Harilal.

Pakistan: Irfan Nawaz, Sayyad Ahmed, Sahah Faisal, Sanaulla Khan, Mohaib Rasool, Bakhat Rasa, Ishfaq Hussain, Naseer Ahmed, M Ismail Khan, Farooq, Muhammad Zaman.

Head Coach: Stefan G.Dimitrov, Asst Coach: Muhammad Akram.

Referees: Sudershan Patnaik (Ind), Nazmal Hasan Sajid (Pak).

Play Timings:1800 hrs onwards, Live Telecast on DD Sports from 1730 hrs.

UNI