NEW DELHI: The official match ball for the first season of Pro Volleyball League has been named the ‘Blockbuster’.
The name was chosen by the league after it ran a contest on its social media handles asking volleyball lovers across the country to choose a name for the official match ball for the first ever season of Pro Volleyball League in association with Spartan Sports, technical equipment partner of the league.
The league, an initiative of Baseline Ventures and Volleyball Federation of India, is set to add to the growing number of sporting leagues in the country when it tips off on February 2nd.
The winning entry came from Bangalore’s Shree Advani, a sport and performance psychologist and the brother of champion cueist Pankaj Advani. In a video released by the league on 2nd January, CEO Joy Bhattacharjya listed several names among more than 100 entries that were received for the contest that ran from 25th of December to 31st of December. ‘Blockbuster’ beat suggested names like Protos, Cannonball and Trailblazer among others.
According to the contest rules, the name ‘Blockbuster’ will be printed on the official match ball, while Shree Advani will be flown to the venue on 2nd February to watch the first ever Pro Volleyball League match.
Talking about the contest, Tuhin Mishra, MD and co-founder of Baseline Ventures, said: “The response to the contest was overwhelming and perfectly captured the excitement that there is among Volleyball fans across the country a month before the league takes off. It was tough choosing from so many names but the response tells us that for a league like this, there couldn’t have been a better name for the official match ball than Blockbuster.”
The inaugural edition of the league will start with six franchises from six Indian cities. The Ahmedabad based team is called Ahmedabad Defenders and is owned by Bonhomie Sports Event Mgmt. Ltd. Kerala’s Calicut Heroes is owned by Beacon Sports while the Chennai Spartans is owned by Chennai Spartans Pvt. Ltd. U Mumba Volley is owned by U Sports who also own a team in the Pro Kabaddi League while Black Hawks Hyderabad is owned by Agile Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Thomas Muthoot owns the Kochi franchise called the Kochi Blue Spikers.
Pro Volleyball League’s first season will be held in two volleyball hotbeds of India i.e. Kochi (Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium) and Chennai (Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium). Each of the six teams will have 12 players including two foreign players and two Indian U-21 players. The league will be played 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. All the matches will be broadcasted live on Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 and will be streamed live on Sony LIV.
