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The inaugural edition of the Rupay Pro Volleyball League is all set to commence from the 2nd of February 2019. Six teams in the fray will battle it out across 18 matches and two cities in a bid to emerge as the first ever champion of the league.
Supported by famed Indian shuttler PV Sindhu, the Pro Volleyball League will be opening a brand new chapter in the history of Indian sports. With the resounding success of the Indian Premier League, Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League, Premier Badminton League, and the Pro Wrestling League, the PVL is yet another franchise-based venture to rekindle the fading spirit of volleyball.
The brainchild of a joint venture between Baseline Ventures and the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI), the league will play host to the Ahmedabad Defenders, Black Hawks Hyderabad, Calicut Heroes, Chennai Spartans, Kochi Blue Spikers and U Mumba Volley, the six teams which will be a part of the first edition of the league.
League owners Baseline Ventures have also penned a multi-year contract with Sony Pictures Networks India which will be broadcasting the matches, a move that is certain to prove as a shot in the arm for many youngsters to prove their talent on the big platform.
Highlights from the auction
The auctions ahead of the commencement of the league witnessed six foreign players being added to the team rosters apart from the 117 Indian players who went under the hammer.
Ranjit Singh, one of India’s favorite volleyball sons emerged as the costliest buy as his services were procured by the Ahmedabad Defenders for a sum of 13 lakh rupees. Apart from Singh, other prominent names such as USA’s Carson Clark and Paul Lotman and Olympic gold medallist David Lee attracted the attention of the teams.
Apart from the three USA stars, Canada’s Rudy Verhoeff, Croatian Tomislav Coskovic and Serbian Novica Bjelica capped off the list of international players drafted into the teams from the auctions.
In the second draft of the league, six more international players joined the league as Victor Sysoev (Ahmedabad Defenders), Adrej Patuc (Kochi Blue Spikers), Nicholas Del Bianco (U Mumba Volley), Ruskans Sorokins (Chennai Spartans), Alex Bader (Canada), Illouni Ngampourou (Calicut Heroes).
Pro Volleyball League Format
Each team in the league will comprise of 12 players that include two foreign players as well as two U-21 Indian players.
The six teams in the competition will play each other once in the league stage before the top four teams from the league stages go through to the knockout stages which will then culminate with the grand final on the 22nd of February 2019.
Pro Volleyball League Teams
Ahmedabad Defenders: Novica Bjielica, Viktor Syosev, Ranjit Singh, Dilip Koiwal, Raman Kumar, Gagandeep Singh, Vaishnav, Rajat, Lijoy Robin P, Rahul Graak, Gurinder Singh, Sayyad Mubarak Ali.
Black Hawks Hyderabad: Carson Clark, Alex Bader, Amit Kumar, Rohit Kumar, Chirag, Guramritpal Singh, Sonu Kumar Jhakar, Ashwal Rai, Nandi Yashwant Kumar, Muthu Samy, Kamlesh Kathik, Angamuthu Ramaswamy.
Calicut Heroes: Paul Lotman, Ilunoi Ngampourou, Jerome Vinith, Gagan Kumar, Ajith Lal C, Jeetu, Karthik A, L.M Manoj, Vipul Kumar, Sanjay, Ratheesh CK, Naveen Kumar.
Chennai Spartans: Ruskans Sorokins, Rudy Verheoff, Vibin George, Naveen Raja Jacob, Piraisoodan, Shelton Moses, A Bhagyaraj, Akhin GS, KJ Kapildev, V Hariharan, Prabhakaran P, Ashwin.
Kochi Blue Spikers: David Lee, Andrej Patuc, Suresh Khoiwal, Sujoy Datta, Prabhagaran S, Mujib, Rohit P, Mohan Ukkrapandian, Ankur Singh, Hari Prasad, Manu Joseph, K Praveen Kumar.
U Mumba Volley: Nicholas Del Bianco, Tomislav Coskovic, Hardeep Singh, Pankaj Sharma, Deepesh Sinha, John Joseph EJ, Prince, Saqlain Tariq, Parshant Saroha, Akshay Kapta, Vinit Kumar, Shubham Chaudhary.
Where and When to watch
One match will be played each day with the first twelve matches being held at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi and the rest of the matches slated to be held in Chennai.
Venues: Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Kochi and Jawaharlal Indoor Stadium, Chennai.
Start time: 7:00 PM IST
Telecast: Sony Six, Sony Ten 3
Streaming: Sony LIV
