CHENNAI: Having finished runner-up in the Pro Volleyball League in 2019 and third in 2022, when the league was re-branded as Prime Volleyball League (PVL) after the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2023, Calicut Heroes went into the third season with high hopes of improving on their previous results. On Saturday, their players were on cloud nine after winning their maiden title in Season 3.
The Calicut Heroes beat the Delhi Toofans in the final, picking a 15-13, 15-10, 13-15, 15-12 win at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai on Thursday to lift their maiden Championship trophy.
Expressing his excitement after lifting the trophy, Jerome Vinith, who plays as an attacker for the Calicut Heroes, and was also adjudged as the Indian Oil MVP for Season 3, said, “This is the most important win for Calicut Heroes and personally for me. I have waited for this opportunity for years and now finally, I have the trophy in my hands. I would say that teamwork and hard work were two key reasons that the Calicut Heroes have won the title.”
Middle-blocker Danial Moatazedi, who won the trophy last year with Ahmedabad Defenders, was instrumental in helping the Calicut Heroes lift the trophy this season.
He echoed similar statements and said, “It is amazing as I have won back-to-back titles now with different teams. It is a feeling that cannot be expressed in words. At the start of the tournament, we lost matches but that only made us stronger because when you keep on winning, you don’t realise your mistakes, errors or where you can improve. But we worked as a team, put in the hard work and now we can celebrate.”
The blocker from Iran also praised Jerome Vinith and Mohan Ukkrapandian, who had a phenomenal season. “Both these players have huge talent and I feel that if they work more on their game, they can easily be among the best players in Asia,” he was quoted as saying by Calicut Heroes on Saturday.
Meanwhile, veteran star Mohan Ukkrapandian, who was named the Nippon Paint Most Innovative Setter of the season, said, “We are really happy after lifting the trophy. This is what we dreamt of when we were training pre-season. We were fully focused on making that dream into a reality and that is exactly what we have done.”
Kishore Kumar, head coach of Calicut Heroes was excited about the team lifting the trophy. He said, “It feels so good to lift the trophy. I feel like I have achieved something big in my life. We played the final after two years and the players lived up to the expectation. I would like to thank the management as they gave me full freedom in my decision-making. Each and every player has contributed to this success, and I couldn’t be more happy.”