India’s 6 team professional league was recently launched less than 2 weeks ago and so far we like what we see!
There are many Volleywood stars playing as the foreign players like Olympic champion David Lee, Olympians Paul Lotman, Novica Bjelica and Rudy Verhoeff. If you follow the league on IG and on Facebook, you can see the organizers have invested a lot of time to make the league very engaging and they are doing such an amazing job marketing it to local fans.
BUT BUT BUT!
What makes the Indian League stand out from all of the world’s professional leagues is that it is THE ONLY PRO LEAGUE that uses the “7/15” scoring system but with 2 major changes.
Do you remember it? This system was tested by the FIVB at the 2017 Men’s and Women’s Under 23 World Championship. Obviously, the plan to use it in other major international tournaments was scrapped possibly because of the feedback from the entire volleyball community.
The FIVB 7/15 Scoring System: Best Of 7. Each set is only to 15 points. Win by 2 points.
Indian League Scoring System: Best Of 5. Each set is only to 15 points. Each set is cap to 15.
See sample match results below:
The league is an initiative between the Volleyball Federation of India and Baseline Ventures. Sony Pictures Networks India is the official broadcaster of the league.[3] RuPay is the title sponsor for the inaugural season of the league.
Each team will have 12 players with the provision of a maximum of two reserve players. All teams had a salary purse of Rs. 75 lakhs from which they picked their team via an auction and player draft. A total of 117 players were divided into four categories – International Icons, Indian Icons, Sr. Indian Internationals, Nationals and U-21 players. The International icon players were picked through a draft process while the Indian players were chosen via an auction.[8] Ranjit Singh of Punjab emerged as the top pick. Ahmedabad Defenders shelled out Rs.13 lakhs for him at the auction.
Having their own pro league is great start for India to resurrect their volleyball program for their national teams to compete in the highest level.