With a new professional league of its own, can volleyball go kabaddi way?

Till some years ago, the chances of volleyball getting a professional league of its own in India were as remote as Nick Kyrgios going an entire match without quarrelling with the chair umpire, or India somehow resisting the urge to invite Sri Lanka for a pointless limited-overs series at home — fanciful stuff that, despite our earnest attempts, seemed too good to come true.

Former Olympic gold medallist David Lee will be turning out for the Kochi Blue Spikers. Photo Courtesy: PVL

Kabaddi, of course, found itself at the end of such risible expectations once upon a time. In just five years, however, the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) has gone from relative obscurity to widespread popularity. Unlike kabaddi, India may not be a volleyball force yet, but the two sports enjoy some similarities. Both are delightfully quick, thrillingly end to end and rather easy to follow. And most important perhaps, they both have a gargantuan following at the grassroots level that makes for a readymade talent pool desperate to take its skills to a larger audience.

“The idea arose from the fact that volleyball is an exciting team sport with simple rules. Almost every school in the country has a volleyball court as well as a volleyball team,” says Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO of the Pro Volleyball League (PVL) that hits television screens tonight. The league is co-owned by the Volleyball Federation of India and sports management firm Baseline Ventures.

Team owners during the auction. Photo Courtesy: PVL

A closer look at viewership figures from recent continental tourneys, and you know exactly what Bhattacharjya is talking about. According to BARC data published by The Economic Times in November last year, 22.4 million Indians sampled volleyball during the 2018 Asian Games. For the Olympic Games in Rio two years before that, the number was even higher, at 54.3 million — a surprisingly stellar figure for a sport that’s seldom known to attract television viewers in such formidable strength. “What these numbers told us was that there is a real hunger for quality volleyball action,” says Bhattacharjya.

Popular it may be, but the league organisers aren’t getting carried away and, for now, are fully focused on starting out small. The PVL only has six teams — Calicut Heroes, Hyderabad Black Hawks, Kochi Blue Spikers, Chennai Spartans, Ahmedabad Defenders and U Mumba Volley — and all the games will be hosted at just two venues, Chennai and Kochi. The heavy representation from the South, Bhattacharjya says, was a conscious move. “The states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the hotbeds of the sport. We wanted the league to take off from there. Having said that, we are definitely not ruling out teams from the North in subsequent editions.”

Team owners during the auction. Photo Courtesy: PVL

More than celebrity owners and the glamour that they inevitably bring to such events, what has worked for the PKL in recent times — the slump in ratings during the latest season notwithstanding — is the exhilarating, edge-of-the-seat nature of the sport itself. There may be no rakish film stars here, but the PVL still has a lot going for it. “Volleyball is fast, athletic, cheap and accessible. For us, it ticked all the boxes for it to become India’s next big sport,” says Supratik Sen, CEO at U Sports, the company that owns U Mumba Volley and which he founded along with film producer Ronnie Screwvala. The duo is also behind the successful U Mumba franchise in the PKL.

To keep things interesting, matches will be played across three sets instead of the conventional five, and teams will be able to call a “trump point” once every match, winning which they will be awarded two points. “Like kabaddi, volleyball’s short format will work in its favour. Plus, you have players coming from all states. This can become a national sport,” says Sen.

Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO, Pro Volleyball League

The man who will skipper U Mumba Volley, Dipesh Kumar Sinha, for instance, comes from the unlikeliest of volleyball habitats: Chhattisgarh. The 6’6’’ blocker grew up in the Naxal-hit Dantewada district, and volleyball turned out to be a life-changing refuge from the uncertainty of life at home. Sinha is now a regular for the national team, most recently turning out in blue at the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang.

“I remember the Indian Premier League (IPL) had been launched around the same time I started playing volleyball. As players, we always wanted to be a part of a professional league. The dream has been more than a decade in the making,” says Sinha.

Initially, Sinha’s unusually tall frame led to calls for him to take up cricket. “People would suggest that I become a fast bowler. That was because they saw cricket on TV,” he says. “Nobody thought of volleyball because they had never seen it. The PVL will change that.”

Sporting recognition is only part of the game. The PVL promises to, partially at least, offer the kind of financial benefits that have been rare for even the most accomplished of Indian volleyball players in the past. Most have to hold down two jobs because merely playing the sport won’t cut it. The auction in December was a welcome sign of things to come. The highest a franchise paid for a player — Ranjit Singh for Ahmedabad Defenders — was Rs 13 lakh, loose change when compared with the preposterous amounts that are dished out for players in the IPL but a significant leap for a sport like volleyball in the country. Sinha himself cost U Mumba Volley Rs 9 lakh.

“You can’t always be playing for the love of a sport. If you want to play professionally, money is important,” feels Sinha.

Then there’s the small matter of sharing a court with David Lee and Paul Lotman, the much-celebrated American duo who will headline the inaugural season of the PVL. Lee is an Olympic gold medallist from Beijing 2008; he and Lotman were also on the team that won the 2015 World Cup.

“If you look at all the sports leagues, the presence of foreign players has helped the Indian players improve. This is a golden opportunity,” says Safeer P T, who owns the Calicut Heroes, the franchise that snapped up Lotman. Lee will be appearing for the neighbouring Kochi Blue Spikers. In fact, the first Kerala derby — scheduled for February 9 in Kochi — is already sold out.

Team owners during the auction.Photo Courtesy: PVL

Such ardent interest will please the likes of RuPay, which has signed up as the title sponsor, and Sony Pictures Network, the official broadcaster. Sony, in fact, will be secretly hoping that the PVL can have the same catalytic effect that the PKL had for Star India. “To have RuPay come on board as the title sponsor is testimony to its belief in the league’s potential,” says Bhattacharjya. The PKL may be a tough act to follow, but if there is one sport that can repeat kabaddi’s phenomenal broadcasting success, then volleyball, with its inescapable thrills and spills, looks like the one. We’ll be keeping a keen watch.