Bengaluru Torpedoes captain Ranjit Singh in an interview with Sports Trumpet

Volleyball player Ranjit Singh, who plays as a setter, was bought at Rs 4.4 lakhs by the Bengaluru Torpedoes at the Auctions in December. Ranjit, who hails from, the Tarn Taran district in Punjab, has already made over 50 appearances for the Senior Indian Team in his career. His international career started with the Youth Indian Team when he was 17 years old.

The RuPay Prime Volleyball League will feature seven franchises from seven different cities including Calicut Heroes, Kochi Blue Spikers, Ahmedabad Defenders, Hyderabad Black Hawks, Chennai Blitz, Bengaluru Torpedoes, and Kolkata Thunderbolts. SONY TEN 1, SONY TEN 3 (Hindi), and SONY TEN 4 (Tamil and Telugu) will broadcast the league. The inaugural season of the league was won by Chennai Blitz as they defeated Calicut Heroes in the finals.

Ranjit Singh represented India twice each at the Youth World Championship and the University World Championship before he made his first senior appearance for India in 2012 at the age of 22.” I grew up in a village where Volleyball was very famous and all the senior players had got their jobs through volleyball itself. My father was a farmer and I belonged to a middle-class family. My elder brother used to play and as I started to grow taller and taller, I also started to play the sport when I was in 5th standard.”

“Then I shifted to the sports hostel and in 2007 gave my first trial for India and got selected.”

In 2014, Ranjit represented India as captain in the 2014 Asian Cup, where he helped his team to win a Silver Medal. He, then, also represented India as captain in the 2014 Asian Games.” Due to my non-sports background, I had no idea about how to get selected for the Indian team. It was my struggle, a lot of help from my senior players, and all the wishes of my loved ones that I was finally able to get selected for the Indian team.”

” This league can be a very big platform for the U 18 players and can get a proper direction as to how to get selected for the national team. All the coaches can help the young players develop into good athletes for the nation.”

” As many of my village people used to work around the sport and I was the first Indian player out of my village, there was a lot of support provided to me at the time which was motivational as well as financial. the biggest support of my career was my elder brother who is in the Army right now.”

” It was a dream come true for me when I went for my first tour in Sri Lanka. I have no words to express the feeling of playing for my country for the first time. To come from a small village and to make your people proud was an amazing feeling.”

” I am playing for the Torpedos Bengaluru as of now and I’m the captain of the team. There is a good mixture of experienced and young players on our team and the coaches provide good support all round to all of the players. I believe that this team will do well this season.”

” There hasn’t been many games and tournaments since the last 2 years, so, you really can’t say that any particular team will have the momentum this time around.”

” There are many talented players in our team like Pankaj, Namit Kataria, Rohit, and other players too who have good experience on the national level as well.”

” Most of the sports had been hit by the pandemic. Some players have been able to practice and some couldn’t. Our squad has a good number of young players which helped in a more rapid recovery from that period as well. Our fitness levels are on a good level.”

” I was in the Police during Covid and continued to do my duty along with my practice as the situation in my village was not that severe.”

” Our coaches who are Laxmi Narayan Sir and Anil treat us like family and their welcoming nature helps us in all of the players bonding really well with them. And a team will naturally perform well if there is good bonding between the players and the staff too.”

When we asked Ranjit about how important the broadcast is for any sports he stated

” In Volleyball is a very interesting game and naturally attracts the viewers towards it. It has a lot of scope in growth across the nation. No matter where the league is if the broadcast is organized in a proper way, then the viewers would get to sit back and relax while getting entertained by a very lively sport. People coming home from their jobs would get a very thrilling experience while watching the one or two-hour broadcast of the league every day.”

on the signing off of the interview captain Ranjit Singh feels confident that his team perform well and make way to the finals

” Every team wants to make it all the way to the final and I believe it is the same with our team and I believe that Torpedos Bengaluru will go all the way to the finals.”