BHUBANESWAR: The Biju Patnaik-led Odisha state government has announced that it will sponsor the Indian national rugby teams for the next three years and facilitate high performance training and conditioning of the players.
An agreement with Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU) was inked here at Kalinga Stadium on Tuesday, New Indian Express reports. Sports director R Vineel Krishna and president of IRFU Maneck Unwala signed the agreement in the presence of the state’s Sports and Youth Services Minister Tusharkanti Behera, Secretary Vishal Dev, CEO IRFU Naseer Hussain and former rugby player Rahul Bose.
The partnership is part of the state government’s mission to develop, promote and expand the sports ecosystem beyond hockey and football. The sponsorship will cover training, conditioning and incentivising the Indian national rugby teams (men and women) participating in international rugby events.
Terming the partnership significant, NIE quotes Behera as having said there has been a steady rise of Rugby in terms of popularity and participation, particularly the participation of young players due to the commendable efforts of Rugby India.
“This partnership between Odisha government and Rugby India will not only help develop the sport of rugby further, but also support and strengthen the high performance training of Indian national rugby teams,” he said.
He said the association aligns perfectly with promotion of rugby which is already gaining grounds in several states. Odisha has produced some famous names in Indian rugby and this initiative will help nurture young talent who can bring laurels to the country, Behera added.
Unwala lauded the Odisha Government for its vision to develop the State as a hub for major sporting events and creating international standard high-performance training centres in multiple sports for the country.
Bose described it as a ‘historic day’ for Indian rugby. “Thanks to this sponsorship from Odisha, national rugby players (women and men) will, for the first time ever, be paid for their services to the Indian rugby teams. This marks a first, solid step towards making rugby a professional sport in the country,” he said.
It is worth noting that the Odisha government already has a similar agreememt in place with with the national hockey teams. It was in 2018 that the state signed a five-year sponsorship agreement with Hockey India. It also supported the Hero Indian Super League team Odisha FC last year.
