MUMBAI: The long in the pipeline Pro Volleyball League (PVL) finally has a launch date and hosting venues.
PVL will tip off on February 2, 2019 and will be played in Kochi and Chennai, with the latter hosting the final, league CEO Joy Bhattacharjya told Sportstar.
The tournament will feature 18 matches with six teams battling it out in a round-robin format. The top four will progress to the semifinals. Each team will consist of 12 players, including two foreigners and two U-21 players, Sportstar reports.
“We want to get the product right in the first season and hence the matches will be held in two of our strongest markets — Kochi and Chennai,” Bhattacharjya told the magazine.
As already announced, matches will be telecast on the Sony Network through the week between 7 pm and 9 pm.
Bhattacharjya said there are very few sports which are television friendly and enjoy widespread popularity in the country, and volleyball was one of them.
He further told Sportstar: “Our belief is that people haven’t seen how good volleyball is on TV. You see it only during the Asian Games or Olympics. Our aim is to show what a fantastic game it is. There is a huge amount of interest around the country and the sport is played by a lot of people.
“We have great expectations not just for the league but for the sport of volleyball. What we’re trying to do is to get big foreign players and the top Indian players to play together, which will make a huge difference to Indian volleyball.”
PVL is co-owned by Baseline Ventures and the Volleyball Federation of India. VFI has granted exclusive rights to the sports management agency to conduct and manage the Men’s, Women’s and Beach Volleyball League in India.
While Baseline had made franchise bid documents available from 15th May, there is yet no word on the six teams that will compete in the league, and by extension, their owners.
