16 hours ago
Jerome, Vinit, Shameemudheen biggest buys at PVL auction
C. Jerome Vinith has a new team in the Prime Volleyball League (PVL).
After smashing away winners for Cailcut Heroes in all the three seasons of the league thus far, he was picked up for ₹22.5 lakh by Chennai Blitz at the auction for Season 4 here on Sunday.
The Chennai franchise faced some stiff competition from Bengaluru Torpedoes before securing the services of Vinith, the Most Valuable Player last season in which he took Calicut all the way to the title.
Two other men also went for ₹22.5 lakh — Vinit Kumar (Kochi Blue Spikers) and Shameemudheen (Calicut).
Hyderabad Black Hawks got Shikhar Singh for Rs. 16 lakh, while Jasjodh Singh was bought for Rs. 14.75 lakh by Kochi. Bengaluru bought P.V. Jishnu for Rs. 14 lakh, while Ahmedabad Defenders spent Rs 11.5 lakh (right to match) on Shon T. John.
The fourth edition of the league is scheduled to be held in October. It has expanded to 10 teams, with the addition of Goa Guardians. Delhi Toofans, Mumbai Meteors and Kolkata Thunderbolts complete the line-up.
After the auction, Tuhin Mishra, the co-founder of Baseline Ventures (the company behind the PVL) expressed hopes for a brighter future. 'The league's last edition attracted 200 million television viewers on our broadcaster Sony, and that is a huge number,' he said. 'We hope that number would be bigger this season. And for streaming on the global stage, we have tied up with the world's biggest OTT platform, YouTube.'
Joy Bhattacharjya, the league's CEO, said the auction highlighted some young talents. 'And the senior players like Jerome got the kind of money they deserved,' he said.
