Pakistan and Australia earn facile wins

Kolkata, July 30 (UNI) Pakistan and Australia recorded straight set victories over New Zealand and Bangladesh respectively in the 2nd Commonwealth Volleyball Championship here today.

Pakistan won the match 25-10, 25-14, 25-11 in 61 minutes.

Australia had to sweat a little more winning the tie 25-16, 25-18, 25-22.

This was despite the fact that Pakistan captain M Zaman and libero Tariq Waseem were not playing due to injuries. While Zaman hopes to play in the next match, assistant coach Muhammad Akram was not hopeful of Waseem's recovery within the next three days.

Spiker Naseer Ahmed, who is considered the best in the trade in central Asia, showed his class with 12 points, which included some power packed smashes from the net.

Muhammad said the tournament here and the test match against India immediately after this would be a good build-up for the Asian Championship in Indonesia.

New Zealand looked all at sea against the continuous formation changes made by the Pakistan side, which comprises mostly of police officers and army, navy jawans. In comparison, the Kiwis are an amateur side that has come together only a week before the tournament and consists of members who range from being school teachers to students.

Matthew Stevens, the Kiwi's assistant coach, said, ''Our main problem is that volleyball is amateur sport in our country. We do not have that amount of government funding and most of the players have a nine to five job.'' ''We met a week before the tournament and so you could see there was lack of gelling among the team,'' he said.

Formidable Australia, after having outplayed Sri Lanka in their lung-opener yesterday, rode on raw firepower to humble minnows Bangladesh 25-16 25-18 and 25-22 in a group A encounter at the Netaji Indoor stadium.

The Kangaroos, who wrapped up the one-sided tie in only 64 minutes, have inched closer to a semi final spot.

For Australia, Paul Carroll emerged as the highest scorer with 15 points.

Later Aussie coach Russel Borgeaud said, ''There were some errors in serve and attack which they hoped to rectify in the next match.'' Aussie skipper Benjamin Hardy added that India will be their first challenge in the competition.

UNI