LAHORE: The Pakistan volleyball team could not par­ticipate in the AVC Con­tinental Cup Beach Volley­ball Championship Central Zone, scheduled to be held in Kerala, India, from Dec 18 to 20, after it failed to get Indian visa.Those who were denied visa were four players –– Mubashir Raza, Mohammad Razzaq, Riaz Khan and She­raz –– and one official Nasim Hussain (team manager).

Pakistan had qualified for the second phase as it was a runner-up in ph ase one, held in Maldives in January this year.The next round of the Bea­ch Continental Cup is scheduled to be held in Australia.

“PVF chairman Chaudhry Yaqoob has written a letter to the AVC president with a copy to FIVB president req­uesting for direct qualification of our players for the next round in Australia as they have suffered this setback for no fault of theirs,” a press-release issued by the Pakistan Volleyball Federation said.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2015