Olympic gold medallist David Lee to headline first Pro Volleyball League auction

New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) Olympic gold medallist David Lee will headline the first Pro Volleyball League draft and auction which will see participation from hundreds of Indian and international stars on December 14 here.

The league, which is an initiative of Baseline Ventures and Volleyball Federation of India, will kick-start its first season in February 2019.

For the auctions, a total of 117 Indian players have been categorised in four categories icon players, Indian senior international players, domestic players and under-21 players. The international players will be picked by the six franchises through a draft process.

The international stars include Canada's Rudy Verhoeff, USA's Paul Lotman and Carson Clark, Serbia's Novika Bjelika and Turkey's Tomislav Coskovic.

The list of Indian icon players include Akhin, Ukkra Pandian, Deepesh, Gurinder Singh, Vinit Kumar, Jerome Vinith and Prabhagaran S.

The first season will see 12 players in each team, with the provision of a maximum of two reserve players. Each squad will have two senior international players, Indian icon player and a minimum of two Indian U-21 players. The rest of the players will be selected from the pool of Indian international and Indian domestic players. Each team will have a salary purse of Rs. 75 lakh.

The six teams to participate in the first edition of Pro Volleyball League are called Ahmedabad Defenders, Calicut Heroes, Chennai Spartans, U Mumba Volley, Black Hawks Hyderabad and Kochi Blue Spikers.

The league will be played in two legs across Kochi and Chennai from February 2-22