The past two months have been particularly tough on Pakistan sports. First, the men’s cricket team’s questionable preparation for the T20 World Cup, which featured a drawn home series against a depleted New Zealand squad, a loss away to Ireland, and a whitewash away to England. Then the debacle in the World Cup, succumbing to a team playing their only World Cup courtesy of being the hosts, before a collapse of astronomical proportions, even by Pakistan standards, against India.

The women’s cricket team did not fare much better, losing all three ODIs and four out of five T20s against West Indies at home. On the tour to England, which coincided with the men’s tour to the same country, they failed to win a single match.

Expectations were not high for the men’s football team, having already outdone themselves by qualifying for the second round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for the first time in our history. Losses were expected against much higher-ranked oppositions in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tajikistan.

But the drama surrounding the installation of floodlights in Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad for the final home game against Saudi Arabia and the Pakistan Football Federation’s inability to arrange adequate transportation for the squad to travel to Dushanbe for the final match against Tajikistan, left a lot of question marks.

Quietly and unsung, Pakistan volleyball is doing far better than all other sports in the country. And it has a promising future to look forward to

Add to this the fact that the men’s hockey team lost the decider in the qualification tournament for the 2024 Olympics — against New Zealand in January — to make it the third Games in a row that will be without the Green Shirts, and it makes for pretty grim reading.

In the midst of all this, there is one sport wherein our team has been quietly doing very well.

Pakistan’s volleyball heritage

During the Asian Games in Guangzhou last year, a social media post became viral, proclaiming (falsely, may I add) that Pakistan had beaten arch-rivals India in the final of the volleyball tournament.

While any win over India is a cause for celebration, we had actually beaten them in the fifth/sixth place play-off match, clinching our best result since the 1990 Games in Beijing. It seems we do well in China.

The social media post did, however, bring the sport into the limelight. Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world and rivals cricket as the most popular sport in Pakistan. But while the cricket team has an ODI World Cup and a T20 World Cup to its name and hogs the attention of our media, the volleyball team has often gone under the radar.

The preeminent reason for that may be lack of silverware, but it is pertinent to note that cricket is only played by around 12 permanent members of the International Cricket Council. The equivalent in volleyball, Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), has more than 200 members and hence the competition is tougher.

That being said, Pakistan volleyball has never really set the world alight. Pakistan achieved a bronze medal in the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta and surprised everyone by finishing fourth in the Asian Championships in 1989 in Seoul in only its second appearance in the continent’s premier competition. But, besides those outliers, Pakistan has normally finished seventh or eighth in most of the Asian Games, Asian Championships or Asian Cups it has entered.

That corresponds with our ranking in Asia, which is seventh. Despite being among the best eight teams in Asia over an extended period, Pakistan has never qualified for the World Championships or the Olympics, primarily due to volleyball being dominated by East European nations.

Spiking aces

Soon after the social media post was debunked, Pakistan volleyball slipped back into obscurity. So, it was no surprise that the news of Islamabad hosting the Central Asian Volleyball Championship flew under most radars, much like the Asian Junior Squash Championships, also in Islamabad, last week.

Defending champions Iran were one of the six teams participating in the tournament, along with Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and hosts Pakistan. Pakistan went unbeaten throughout the competition, dropping only two sets in the round-robin group stages, against Turkmenistan and Iran, before winning the final against Turkmenistan 3-1.

Pakistan’s status as one of the highest-ranked teams in the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA), coupled with the victory in the corresponding tournament, earned it a ticket to the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup in Bahrain.

As part of preparations for the tournament, Australia toured Pakistan. Australia were 14 places better in the FIVB rankings, but that didn’t stop Pakistan from bringing the heat to the visitors. Ultimately, Pakistan whitewashed Australia in the three-match series, without dropping a set. Entry to the matches being hosted in Liaquat Gymnasium was free, resulting in decent crowds through the three matches.

In the AVC Challenge Cup, which serves as the Asian qualifier to the FIVB Challenger Cup, which itself serves as the qualifier to the FIVB Nations League, Pakistan were drawn with defending champions Thailand and Kazakhstan. Pakistan continued its good form in 2024 and swept both of them aside in straight sets.

In the quarter-finals against Vietnam, which coincided with the match against USA in the T20 World Cup, Pakistan lost two sets but maintained composure to edge the decider. The semi-final against South Korea was more straightforward, Pakistan winning 3-1. In the final, Pakistan lost to Qatar in straight sets, having also lost to the same opponent in the Asian Games a year ago.

Attaining runners-up medals in a tournament very similar to the AVC Asian Cup (only Japan and Iran were missing from the Challenge Cup, since they’re already a part of the Nations League) represents Pakistan volleyball’s best performance and signifies the improvement that has been made under Argentine coach Ruben Wolochin. Winning a medal in a prestigious continental tournament will help with the mindset of the team in future events.

The team itself has the potential to grow further; it is a young, talented squad, with eight of the 14 who played in Bahrain under 25 years of age. Five of them ply their trade in clubs abroad. Stalwarts like Aimal Khan and captain Murad Jehan lend valuable experience to the group, helping future superstars like Usman Faryad, Murad Khan and Musawer Khan to groom and get better.

The future is bright too, highlighted by Pakistan’s under-18 team’s victory in the CAVA U-18 Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In the final played just a day after the final of the AVC Challenge Cup, Pakistan defeated heavyweights Iran 3-1, to take home the trophy and qualify for the Asian U-18 Volleyball Championship for only the second time. Muhammad Yahya was crowned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament and was joined by Talal Ahmed and Jabran in the Dream Team.

The Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF), under president Chaudhary Muhammad Yaqoob, deserves appreciation for its role in providing valuable exposure to the players through participation in foreign leagues and for hosting international tournaments and teams. But if Pakistan is to excel further in the sport, the foundation of which has been laid, the Federation will need to play a much greater role.g

The writer is a sports enthusiast with a background in supply chain management. X: @tahagoheer

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 30th, 2024