Cochin | Seven teams are Calicut Heroes, Kochi Blue Spikers, Ahmedabad Defenders, Hyderabad Black Hawks, Chennai Blitz, Bengaluru Torpedoes and Kolkata Thunderbolt. 24 matches in 23 days. Rupee Prime Volleyball League kicks off today The Gatchibauli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad is ready for a tough battle.
Competitions are in a strong biosecurity zone in the Kovid situation. Hyderabad Black Hawks will take on Kochi Blue Spykers in the inaugural match today. All teams will compete against each other each time. The top four teams in the league round will qualify for the semi-finals. The knockout matches are on the 24th and 25th.
1. Calicut Heroes
Jerome Vineet (Universal) and C Ajithlal (Attacker) will be the team’s top scorers. The performances of American Olympic gold medalist David Lee (blocker) and Frenchman Aaron Cooby (attacker) will be a litmus test for their opponents. Abil Krishnan, Vishal Krishna, Vighnesh Raj, R Ramanathan, Arjun Nath, Mujeeb, Jitin, Lal Sujan, Arun Zacharias Sibi and Ansab are the other players in the team. Former Indian cricketer Kishore Kumar is the coach.
2. Kochi Blue Spikers
Middle Blocker Karthik Madhu, who captained the Indian national team in the last tournament, is the captain of Kochi Blue Spykers. Experienced middle blocker Deepesh Kumar Sinha will be a great support to him. The foreign presence is that of attackers Colton Cowell and Cody Coldwell from the USA. Raison Bennett Rebello, Sethu, Erin Varghese, Darshan S Gowda, C Venu, Abhinav, Dushyant, Prashant Kumar Saroha, Asham A and Abdur Rahim are also in the squad.
3. Ahmedabad Defenders
The strength of the team is the presence of Muthusamy, the best setter, LM Manoj as the middle blocker, American Ryan Meehan (blocker) and Rodrigo Villalbova (attacker) from Argentina. The team also includes Hardeep Singh, Shaun T John, S Santosh, Prabhakaran, Saju Prakash Mayal, Prasanna Raja, Chaudhary Harsh and Angamuthu.
4. Bengaluru Torpedoes
Experienced Ranjit Singh (captain and setter) and Pankaj Sharma (attacker) are the spearheads of the team. The performances of American stars Noah Titano (Universal) and Kyle Front (Attacker) will be heartbreaking for opponents. Rohit, Varun, Mithun Kumar, Sarang Shantilal, Lovemeet Kataria, Srajan Yu Shetty, Ranjit Singh, Vinayak Rokhade and Ganesh K are the other stars.
5. Hyderabad Black Hawks
Setters Hariharan V and Vipul Kumar are in the Hyderabad Black Hawks team to provide excellent support to veteran attacker Amit Gulia. The presence of international players such as Luis Antonio Arias Guzm (n (Universal) from Venezuela and Henry Bell (Attacker) from Cuba also strengthens the team. The team also includes Rohit Kumar, George Antony, Anand, Sudhir Shetty, John Joseph, Jishnu, Praful and Guru Prashant.
6. Chennai Blitz
The presence of experienced Ukrapandian Mohan (captain and setter), GS Akhin (middle blocker) and Naveen Raja Jacob (attacker) make the Chennai Blitz great. Chennai have strengthened their squad with the addition of Fernando David Gonzalez Rodriguez (attacker) from Venezuela and Bruno de Silva (attacker) from the US.
The other stars are Amit, Azmat Ullah, Kanakaraj, Vaishnav, Abhilash Chaudhary, Mohit Bhim Sehrawat, Pinamma Prashant, Amit Singh, Captains Tanwar and Jobin Varghese.
7. Kolkata Thunderbolt House
Kolkata Thunderbolt has experienced players. Ashwal Roy (captain and middle blocker), Vineet Kumar (Universal), international players Matthew August (blocker) and Ian Sutterfield (Universal) from the US are the strongest. Along with them, Anu James, Tarun Gowda K, Mohammad Riyazuddin, Rahul K, Hariprasad BS, Mohammad Shafiq, Aravindan S and Janshad U are in the team set.
The matches will be telecast live on Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 2 (Malayalam), Sony Ten 3 (Hindi) and Sony Ten 4 (Tamil and Telugu).