Volleyball League Is Back

The wait of the volleyball lovers is over as Pro Volleyball League is going to be held next year.

Kochi in the state of Kerala is getting this wonderful opportunity to be the host this time. The Pro Volleyball league was on hold because of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

The second edition of the Pro Volleyball League (PVL) is coming up with a fresh look and feel. The last Pro Volleyball League that was staged three years back was loved by the spectators. It is believed that this edition will garner more attention.

“It’s a new avatar. It’s a completely private thing with zero interference from anyone. That’s the big learning that we had. All the team owners have a stake in the league, we didn’t want any outside interference,” said Tuhin Mishra, co-founder, and MD, Baseline Ventures. Baseline venture is organising this event.

Ashwal Rai, C. Ajithlal, G.S. Akhin, Jerome Vinith, Deepesh Kumar Sinha, A. Karthik, Naveen Raja Jacob and Vinit Kumar from the Indian team and David Lee (USA) and Luis Antonio Arias Guzman (Venezuela), are the big shot players who will be in the auction. Total 400 players will try their luck to be in their preferred franchise. There will be seven teams — Calicut

Heroes, Kochi Blue Spikers, Ahmedabad Defenders, Hyderabad Black Hawks, Chennai Blitz, Bengaluru Torpedoes, and Kolkata ThunderboltsThunderbolts.

The players will get the opportunity to play the game with players across the globe. This is going to be the golden opportunity for the young players to learn from the experienced players and sharpen their skills. This will help the national team to move forward towards the aim of performing better than before in the Olympics.

Sajjad Hussain & S. Dakshinamoorthy (Ahmedabad Defenders), K.R. Lakshminarayana (Bengaluru Torpedoes), Kishore Kumar (Calicut Heroes), Chander Singh (Chennai Blitz), Ruben Wolochin (Hyderabad Black Hawks), M.H. Kumara (Kochi Blue Spikers), and Sunny Joseph (Kolkata Thunderbolts) are the head coaches for the respective teams.

Mishra also cleared the doubt of the players who were worried about the actions that might cause trouble in their international career. He assured that “Legally, the (national) federation cannot stop any player from playing. Verbally, they can say anything but legally they cannot take any action. Plus, the federation in its own affidavit to the Competition Commission of India has given in writing that they will not stop any player or coach from participating in any league in the country. And there are enough court judgments which protect the player.”

The players are having their hopes high. “It brought about a massive change, the way we played and prepared, also the massive exposure on TV. That would have been a big step towards the Olympics,” is said by M. Ukkrapandian, the Indian captain at last year’s Asian championship last year.