Cai Bin appointed as new head coach of Chinese women's volleyball team

Chinese volleyball icon Cai Bin has been appointed as the new head coach of the Chinese women's national volleyball team, the General Administration of Sport of China announced on Thursday.

This is the second time Cai has taken over the women's national team of China. The first time was not a very pleasant experience as he didn't stay in the position for a year. The loss against Thailand in the Asian Women's Volleyball Cup in September 2009 cost Cai the job.

Compared with his coaching record of the national team, Cai's performance at the club level is more successful. He used to lead Shanghai and Jiangsu to win multiple domestic titles and was named coach of the year in 2017.

Now that Cai has his second chance with the national team, he will face several challenges. First, China's performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was nothing but disappointing. After losing all of their first three games, the franchise didn't even make it out of the group stage.

Such poor performance drew a lot of criticism and questioning about the roster. As a result, multiple veterans decided to retire from the national team after the Tokyo Games. Cai will need to inject some new blood and energy into the team, but meanwhile, the bigger question is, should he start over or keep the current system of the national team?

It will take time for both new team members to build synergy and to get familiar with the new style. However, Cai may not have that much time to build everything from the beginning because his team has three major events to attend in 2022.

The first will be the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League between May and July. The Chinese national team sent the second team players to the competitions in 2021. However, China was still considered the biggest Olympic gold candidate and must focus on preparing for the Tokyo Games. Cai might not afford to send the B-Team to the Nations League.

The following event will be the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, in September. That title is one of the last things China could miss, especially when they are playing at home; the last time Cai failed to win an Asian championship, he lost his job.

The last major contest in 2022 is the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship, which will take place right after the Asian Games.

It has been 36 years since China won the title of the event, so Cai should not be under the heaviest pressure to make a difference this time; however, it doesn't mean his team won't have to go for a good record.