Ismail appointed Pakistan's new volleyball captain

ISLAMABAD The Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) has changed the captain of the national team due to poor performance in the recently concluded third Asian Zone Volleyball Championship held in India from September 16 to 20. Mohammad Ismail has been appointed new skipper of the team to replace previous captain Zaheer Abbas. Under Zaheers captaincy, Pakistan finished at the bottom in the four-nation international fixture. Besides traditional rivals India, Iran and Kazakhstan overpowered the green shirts comfortably. Now the PVF decided to select the new leader of the national team for upcoming international events. A 15-man squad will leave for Dubai on Wednesday (today) to participate in the 12th Al-Rashid International Mens Volleyball Championship scheduled to be held from October 8-13 at Dubai. The federation made other two changes in the team and Mohammad Razzak and Pir Baksh Yasin have been included the squad in place of Shah Rukh Khan and Zahid Basheer respectively. A PVF official told this scribe that six teams were competing in the 12th edition of Al-Rashid International Volleyball Championship. Following is the list of teams: Pakistan, India, United Arabs Emirates, Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia. Oman were the winners of the last fixture, he added. Chairman PVF Choudhry Mohammad Yaqoob, Head Coach Augusto Sabatini, Assistant Coach Mazhar Hussain and Manager Mohammad Iqbal Khan selected the boys in the meeting keeping in view the pervious performance of the spikers in the international events, he added. Squad: Mohammad Ismail (Captain), Zaheer Abbas, Nasir Khan, Imdad Hussain, Syed Sujha Abbas, Mohib Rasool, Muneer Khan, Asif Nadeem, Amal Khan, Mohammad Razzak, Pir Buksh Yasin, Farooq Khan, Augusto Sabatini (Head Coach), Mazhar Hussain (Assistant Coach), Mohammad Iqbal Khan (Manager).