After domestic leagues such as Indian Premier League (cricket), Indian Super League (football), Pro Kabaddi League, Premier Badminton League and others are gaining popularity, volleyball is also set to join the bandwagon.
The Inaugural edition of the Pro Volleyball League by Baseline Ventures India Pvt. Ltd and Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) will be held at Kochi (Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium) and Chennai (Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium) between February 2 and 22. The league, supported by Olympic badminton silver medallist PV Sindhu, will be telecasted between 7 pm and 9 pm on Sony SIX and SONY TEN 3 channels.
The organisers have now revealed six teams on board to participate in the first edition of Pro Volleyball League. The teams are Ahmedabad Defenders owned by Bonhomie Sports Event Mgmt. Ltd., the Calicut Heroes owned by Beacon Sports, the Chennai Spartans owned by Chennai Spartans Pvt. Ltd., U Mumba Volley owned by U Sports, the Hyderabad Black Hawks owned by Agile Securities Pvt. Ltd. and the Kochi Blue Spikers owned by Thomas Muthoot.
Each of the six teams will comprise 12 players including two foreign players, one Indian icon player and two Indian U-21 players. The six teams will be fighting it out over a total of 18 matches with each team playing each other once in a round-robin format and the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals.
The player auction for the Pro Volleyball League will be on 13 and 14 December with Rs 75 lakh as the cap. There will be a draft of foreign players. The maximum number of foreign players for the inaugural edition has been limited to two (per team). The restriction is to it is to keep a control on prices.
"Volleyball is a sport with great mass appeal and the league is bound to be a massive success. India loves its volleyball and everyone will get to see that adulation for the sport when the league takes off in February," said S. Vasudevan, president of Volleyball Federation of India.
