Pakistan win easy, sees tournament as Asian Champ built-up

Kolkata, July 30 (UNI) Pakistan made short work of New Zealand to record straight set victory in the 2nd Commonwealth Volleyball Championship here today.

Pakistan won the match 25-10, 25-14, 25-11 in 61 minutes. This was despite the fact that 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. Ismail Khan was also ebulient with eight points of smashes and blocks at 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.

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

UNI