ISLAMABAD: Pakistan volleyball team captain Murad stresses the country is blessed with immense talent in sports, but it needs to harness it. For that, the 30-year-old believes a professional league is essential.
A league like cricket’s Pakistan Super League is the need of the hour as it will provide much-needed exposure to the players, Murad stresses to Dawn on Tuesday. “The government and the sponsors need to come forward and make it happen.”
Murad was speaking on the rest day of the Central Asian Volleyball Championship, in which Pakistan has won its opening three matches. He said the team’s strong performances were due to several of its players playing in professional leagues in different countries.
It matters a lot, he stressed
Currently, 10 of our players out of 14 have experience playing in leagues abroad, which has benefitted the national team. However, we can only do so much better than this if we have a league in our country.
“With just a few editions, there will be a significant improvement, as our players will be playing with foreign players, which will provide them with much greater competition.
“Countries like the Maldives are holding professional leagues, so why can’t we do the same? The government has to come forward and support the federation in that endeavor because, without its support, it’s impossible to hold it.”
He gave the example of Iran, Asia’s top-ranked side
They have a fantastic league, and it shows why they’re Asia’s top team, said Murad.
Pakistan’s important spiker said that while there may be a want to improve infrastructure on the grassroots degree, “the Pakistan Volleyball Federation is doing the exceptional it can with the available assets; however, without the overall patronage and assistance of the government, we can’t achieve our targets.
Murad, who hails from Bannu, has been part of the national team since 2013 and was recently handed captaincy. He was optimistic about Pakistan’s chances of winning the Central Asian Championship by beating Iran, his team’s main rivals.
Murad stated that some Iranian players would be absent due to league commitments, but the team would still be very competitive. But we believe we can still beat them as we did two years ago here in Islamabad.
Pakistan’s next assignment is the Asian Volleyball Confederation Cup in Bahrain, and Murad believes the Central Asian Championship offers the ideal preparation for the continent’s premier tournament.
A good performance will definitely help us at the AVC Cup, he said. “It’s always good to go into a tournament on a winning high.
