BEIJING - Former China's women's volleyball team head coach Cai Bin had lost control of his players, an insider told the Southeast Express.

"The head coach lacked strategy and the players were not even listening to him. How could you expect a team to be successful in such circumstances?" a former national team player, who was reluctant to give her name, told the paper recently.

"The team gave everyone the impression of being disorderly and it was really very depressing."

After one year and two days in charge, Cai stepped down last Thursday following a series of disappointing results, including losses to Japan twice and to Thailand for the first time in the Asian Championships final.

Having won five consecutive world titles in the 1980s, the women's volleyball team was renowned for its strong will and dogged defense and was considered the embodiment of national spirit and thus enjoyed great popularity in China.

The team reached another peak, under the guidance of Cai's predecessor Chen Zhonghe, when it won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

However, Chen was edged out by the then 43-year-old Cai in March 2009, which aroused great controversy among fans.

A year later, 73.1 percent of fans surveyed by Sina.com, a Chinese portal site, believed "Cai had wasted one year of the team's development".

Meanwhile, his successor, Wang Baoquan, who led Tianjin to seven championships over the past eight years in the domestic league, is expected to revive the struggling team.

With an average height of only 1.84m and without a star spiker, the Tianjin team dominated the league with its technical excellence and never-say-die attitude.

"The Tianjin team is much like the successful national teams of the past. Technically, it is very competent and is solid in defense and teamwork. What's more important, it competes with unshakeable determination," Yang Mali, a senior volleyball commentator, said. "Tianjin's success has a lot to do with head coach Wang and I believe he will infuse all those great characteristics into the national team."

Besides coaching Tianjin, Wang was an assistant coach of the national side from 1998-2001.

"Wang's dedication is obvious to all. He is very strict with himself and also with his players," said former coach Chen.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/30/2010 page24)