Calicut Heroes

Calicut Heroes is a professional volleyball team that is based in the city of Kozhikode (formerly known as Calicut) and play in the RuPay Pro Volleyball League. They are one of the two teams in the league to hail from the state of Kerala, the other franchise being Kochi Blue Spikers. They begin their campaign on the 3rd of February against the Chennai Spartans at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Kochi.

Paul Michael Lotman from the United States will be the international icon player for the team, while the Indian icon player will be Jerome Vinith Charles. Jerome will also act as the captain of the team. The team will be coached by Sajjad Hussain Malik and will be mentored by former Indian volleyball team player Kishore Kumar who also hails from Kozhikode.

The fans of the team have been tagged as “Chembada” which translates to “Red Army”. Tryco is the social media partner of Calicut Heroes and they have encouraged the fans with the motto of “Paint it Red”, as the teams dons the red jersey with the logo of the same color. The theme song of the Calicut Heroes was sung by the famous Indian singer Shankar Mahadevan and written by Shruthi Sujesh. The theme song celebrates the passion for volleyball across the nation alongside portraying the culture of the state Kerala.

Background

The franchise is owned by the Beacon Group, an IT firm based in the city of Kozhikode itself. The director of Beacon Sports, Mr. Jasheer P.K. and managing director Mr. Safeer, launched the Calicut Heroes bandwagon in the presence of the Malayalam actor, Harith.

Key Players

2015 World Cup winner, Paul Lotman arrives with bags of experience playing at both international and club levels across Poland, Indonesia and Germany. He will shoulder a lot of expectations as the international icon player. Fellow international player Ilouoni Ngampourou from the Republic of Congo will also be expected to shine.

Among the Indian players, Ratheesh C.K. is one of the more experienced players of the team and was the costliest libero during the player drafts. He will be helping captain Jerome with organising the team. Also keep an eye out for young star, Ajith Lal who represented India at the 2018 Asian Games at Jakarta-Pelambang. Nicknamed as the “Hydrogen Boy” because of his ability in the air, he will be looking ahead to a glittering career.

Squad List