The seven-nation DBBL Asian Senior Men's Central Zone Volleyball Champion -ship began in the city Saturday at the Shaheed Suhrawardy National Indoor Stadium in Mirpur with hosts Bangladesh making a flying start beating the Maldives by 3-1 sets in the opening match, reports UNB.
Bangladesh Volleyball Federation (BVF) organised the country's first-ever international volleyball meet of its kind, under the auspices of International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC). Earlier, veteran politician and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, who is also the chairman of the meet's organising committee, inaugurated the six-day tournament Saturday afternoon at a colourful opening ceremony.
Chief of General Staff of Bangladesh Army Lt Gen Moinul Islam and Managing Director of the meet's sponsor Dutch-Bangla Bank KS Tabrej were present as special guests.
First Vice President of AVC Essa Hamzah Alfailakawi, President of Indian Volleyball Federation Chaudhary Avadhes Kumar and President of Iran Volleyball Federation Dr Davarzanil also spoke on the occasion, President of Bangladesh Volleyball Federation (BVF) M Atiqul Islam and Senior Vice President of BVF AH Aslam Sunny also spoke on the occasion.
The opening ceremony featured march past by seven participating teams, band show by Bangladesh Ansar and VDP team, presentation of games theme song, traditional folk song with dances and popular song by renowned vocalist Kumar Biswajit. State- run Bangladesh Television telecast the opening ceremony live.
Seven countries, split into two groups, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan. (Group A) , Afghanistan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Group B), are competing in the six-day continental meet, Later, two top teams from each of the group will play the semifinals.
Today's (Sunday) matches: Afghanistan vs Uzbekistan (3:00 pm), Kyrgyzstan vs Nepal (5:00 pm).
