Prime Volleyball League: Hyderabad Black Hawks' Amit Gulia aims to learn from foreign players

New Delhi, December 30: Young India volleyball player Amit Gulia has great expectations from the upcoming Prime Volleyball League 2022, which is set to begin February 5 in Kochi.

The 23-year-old athlete from Jhajjar, Haryana, will be featuring for the Hyderabad Black Hawks and expressed his excitement over sharing the change room with foreign players in his team and learning tricks of the trade from them.

Luis Antonio Arias Guzman from Venezuela (Universal) and Henry Bell from Cuba (Attacker) are the top three players the franchise has roped in ahead of the PVL 2022 season.

"The Prime Volleyball League will provide a great platform to the volleyball players, wherein they can showcase their talent. There will be foreign players as well and we have a foreign coach in Ruben Wolochin from Argentina as well. We will get to learn a lot while playing with the foreign players," said Gulia, who was acquired for Rs. 10 lakh in the Prime Volleyball League Auction held earlier this month.

Gulia, who works for the Income Tax Department in New Delhi when he is not practising or playing volleyball tournaments, spoke about his journey in the sport so far, "I started playing volleyball in Sirsa, Haryana in 2008. I came across volleyball while I was studying in a boarding school there. I was in the 4th or 5th standard.

First, I played for my school team and then played age-group national tournaments. Thereafter, I participated in my first Senior Nationals in 2016 (Haryana team). Two years later, I played for the Indian team for the first time and I am currently in the national side."

The Attacker added that he was also part of the Gold Medal-winning Indian team at the South Asian Games in 2019 in Kathmandu, "I have played in the 2018 Asian Games and I led the Indian side to a Silver Medal at the U-23 Asian Championship in 2019 in Myanmar. I was also part of the Gold Medal-winning team at the South Asian Games in 2019 in Kathmandu."

When asked about the hardships he has faced during his pursuit to become a volleyball player, the 23-year-old said, "Volleyball is an indoor sport and whichever competition we play in; it is held in an indoor stadium. The issue is that there are not too many indoor stadiums for us to practice in. We get to practice in indoor stadiums when we are in the Nationals camps, but otherwise, we have to train outdoors. The Prime Volleyball League will also give us an opportunity to carry out our practice sessions in indoor stadiums."

Gulia also spoke about how he oscillates between working for the Income Tax Department and playing volleyball professionally.

"I get enough time to practice since I got this job through sports quota. When I am not playing tournaments or practicing, I work for the Income Tax Department. I work for around 1-2 weeks every month. I also play for the department in tournaments held only for Civil Services departments," the Attacker signed off.

The Prime Volleyball League will be telecast on the Sony TEN 1, Sony TEN 2, Sony TEN 3 and Sony TEN 4 along with Sony LIV and the viewers will also have an opportunity to watch their favourite sport in their regional languages.

The Prime Volleyball League is exclusively marketed by Baseline Ventures, the leading sports marketing firm in the nation. RuPay, the first-of-its-kind Global Card payment network from India, has come on board as the Title sponsor of the Prime Volleyball League and Fantasy games leaders A23 have signed on as "Powered By" sponsors in a multi-year deal.