Pro Volleyball League: Everything you need to know
Kerala being the hotbed for volleyball in the country, is all set and ready to be the home for 2 teams in the upcoming exciting Pro Volleyball League. The league, which will start rolling on February 2nd, 2019, will feature two teams from Kerala - Kochi Blue Spikers and Calicut Heroes.
The Calicut-based Beacon Sports owns the Calicut Heroes team whereas the Muthoot Fincorp is the owner of Kochi Blue Spikers. The league is aimed at bringing back the glory of volleyball in India.
Kerala, being the homeland of Jimmy George, the greatest volleyball player the country has ever seen, is undoubtedly having the biggest fanbase for volleyball. Kerala has much deservingly got the opportunity to have two teams in the inaugural season of the league.
The league will see 6 teams fighting against each other in a round robin format in the group stage with the top four teams qualifying for the semifinals. Apart from the 2 Kerala teams, the league features four other teams: Ahmedabad Defenders, Black Hawks Hyderabad, Chennai Spartans, and U Mumba Volley.
Along with the Indian players, the league will also feature foreign players, mainly from USA, Serbia, and Turkey. Kochi will host 9 group stage matches and Chennai will be the host for the remaining six league matches, semifinals and final.
Indian internationals Akhin GS, Mohan Ukkrapandiyan, Prabhagaran, Gurinder Singh, Ranjit Singh, and Deepesh Sinha are listed as the icon players for the tournament. Each team can have 12 players including an icon player, two foreign players, and two Indian under-21 players.
Teams can select foreign players via the Draft process while the Indian players can be picked up through the player auction. The auction and draft for the inaugural season will take place on December 14th. Each team will have a salary cap of 75 lakhs, with a maximum of 20 lakhs to be spent on a foreign player, 15 to 18 lakhs for an icon player and 3 to 12 lakhs for other Indian players.
Former US captain, Olympic gold medallist, and the World Cup winner David Lee has already signed up for the league, adding more glamour and attention to the tournament. Olympic silver medallist shuttler PV Sindhu is also associated with the league as the brand ambassador.
Let's hope that this new league will turn out to be a success, unlike the Indian Volley League which failed to garner any attention.