Nepal to face Bangladesh in volleyball friendlies

Kathmandu, August 28

Nepal men’s volleyball team will be looking for a revenge when they play against Bangladesh in friendly matches at the Nepal Army Sports Complex on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Nepal had faced defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in the AVM Central Zone Volleyball Tournament in Maldives in March. Nepal’s skipper Em Bahadur Magar said his side would beat the visitors this time around. “We lost against Bangladesh with narrow margins last time but we are determined to beat them this time around,” said Magar. Magar also said that the friendly matches would be helpful for his side to prepare for the upcoming tournaments.

Similarly, Nepali team coach Jagadish Bhatta said both the teams were of the same level and they had equal chance of winning the matches. Bhatta said Nepali team was a different one in terms of receiving and blocking after getting the training from Netherlands’ coach Maat van Wezel, who was here for three weeks to coach the Nepali team. “Since we cannot do much things in three weeks, we worked on receiving and blocking aspects. And we also focused on preparing the players mentally for the matches,” said Bhatta.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Iranian coach Ali Pour Anogi hoped the friendly matches would be the best platform to use young members of the team. “It is not only about results. We will get the opportunity to use young players as well as we can test their potential through the friendly matches which is not possible during competitions,” Anogi said.

Bangladesh skipper Al Zabir said most of the members of the team were suffering from viral fever that caused weakness in the players. “Playing friendly matches against Nepal is a good opportunity for us and we will try our level best to win the matches,” said Zabir adding that Nepali players were technically and tactically good.