India's rugby sevens venture tries to convert Olympic dreams to reality
The 34-match Rugby Premier League (RPL) will be staged for two weeks from Sunday in Mumbai and has attracted greats of the game such as the United States' try-scoring machine Perry Baker.
"Is there space for a sport outside of cricket in India? 100 percent," Rugby India president Rahul Bose told AFP as he hopes to convert sports fans into following the fast-paced, short-form version of rugby union.
The RPL is run by GMR Sports, which owns a team in the cricket T20 behemoth that is the Indian Premier League (IPL).
It combines Indian rugby players in six franchise teams alongside 30 globally experienced teammates, including current World Rugby Sevens Series stars such as Australia's Maurice Longbottom and Fiji's Filipe Sauturaga.
Coaches include former USA mentor Mike Friday, New Zealand legends Tomasi Cama and DJ Forbes, and England great Ben Gollings.
Bose, a former India rugby international and successful Bollywood actor, has big dreams.
"An Indian (rugby) team getting into the Olympics, whether it's men or women, is inevitable," Bose said.
Bose believes it could happen within a decade.
And that could mean an India team taking part in a home 2036 Olympics, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared he wants to host.
"There's a lot of money," Bose said, adding that the budget of the Mumbai-based national rugby federation had grown more than 30-fold. "There's a lot of opportunity."
He is coy on precise funding, saying only that overseas stars in the RPL were being paid an "equitable" fee to what they receive in tournaments worldwide.
'Dream come true'
India's overall record at the Olympics is poor, winning only 10 gold medals in its history.
Cricket offers an obvious chance to increase that tally when it returns at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but India is keen to be competitive in other sports.
Fiji scrum-half Terio Tamani, who will play for Hyderabad Heroes, believes rugby could offer an opportunity.
"They have facilities, they have money for them to develop," said Tamani, whose country won Olympic men's rugby gold in 2016, Fiji's first Olympic medal of any colour.
India captain Prince Khatri, also of Hyderabad, said training and playing with marquee stars he had previously seen only on television was "a dream come true".
"I'm learning a lot," he said. "This is just the beginning."
RPL says it has talent scouts going countrywide to draw youngsters into six regional training centres.
"That's the real gold dust," said ex-USA coach Friday, now training Kalinga Black Tigers.
"Because ultimately the league will happen for 14 days but it's about what happens after in the other 11 months."
Baker, a two-time World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, said the league will help fast-track local players.
"Having these top-calibre players around will help elevate them," the American said.
- Long history, niche sport -
Kiran Kumar Grandhi, chairman of GMR Sports, said having "world class" rugby in India will foster grassroots development.
GMR has the experience.
Part of a New Delhi-based conglomerate spanning airports and highways, GMR owns the IPL's Delhi Capitals and franchises in India's popular Pro Kabaddi League and Ultimate Kho Kho League.
India is pushing for both of those tag-type sports to be included in the Olympics.
Rugby has a long history in India, dating back to 1871 during British rule.
That was when the glittering silver Calcutta Cup was created and it remains the oldest trophy contested between international rugby union teams, in this case England and Scotland.
But rugby has remained a niche sport.
The RPL's home at the 7,000-capacity Mumbai Football Arena is not even a dedicated rugby pitch.
But RPL organisers believe that, just as the IPL saw ratings surge with the T20 transformation of cricket, it can woo fans and sponsors with a version of rugby where matches are over in a fast-and-furious 22 minutes.
"The sport is just built for spectators and television," Bose said, adding he ambitiously hopes for 10 to 15 million people to tune in via broadcast giants Star Sports and JioStar.
India's Arpan Chhetri, who will play for Bengaluru Bravehearts, said players are focused on one ambition.
"Our target is to get into the Olympics," he said.
"We will keep going until we succeed."
© 2025 AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
From samurai threat to Asian Games as Japan cricket fights obscurity
But Japan's cricket association, which operates out of a disused school near a wooded mountain, says the sport is slowly gaining popularity and hopes next year's home Asian Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics can take it to a new level. "My whole 11 years here have been about trying to provide people with opportunities to play," said Englishman Alan Curr, Japan Cricket Association's chief operations officer. "That's a lot easier if they know the sport exists. Ultimately, you can't be what you can't see." Curr says cricket is growing annually in Japan with more than 5,000 adults and children playing the game regularly and about three times as many having tried it in some form. That is still a drop in the ocean compared to Japanese baseball, which is played by millions and produces global superstars such as the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani. The two sports arrived in Japan at roughly the same time, although cricket's origins were slightly less auspicious. A samurai threat to kill all foreigners who refused to leave Japan prompted a group of European residents to seek protection from the British navy in Yokohama. They had a game of cricket to pass the time, playing with loaded guns tucked into their belts to guard against possible attack. A Scottish tea merchant founded the first cricket club in Japan five years later but it failed to catch on beyond expatriate circles. Fast forward to the late 1980s and several universities began playing -- "students were looking for something unique", according to global governing body the ICC. Spreading the word The sport has maintained a niche presence, although rising numbers of South Asian residents in Japan have boosted the playing population. Japan's national teams reflect the sport's Commonwealth roots, featuring several players with parents from cricket-playing countries. The JCA, founded in 1984, has worked hard to introduce cricket to people with no previous experience, concentrating their efforts on selected hubs around the country. Japan women's Twenty20 captain Mai Yanagida told AFP she "knew the name but didn't really know what kind of sport it was" until she took up cricket at Waseda University in Tokyo. "I played softball and baseball before that, but in cricket you can hit the ball 360 degrees," she said at the Women's Sano City International Trophy this month. "I think it's more a sport where you need to play together as a team." The Sano City tournament was played at Japan's cricket headquarters about 100 km (60 miles) outside of Tokyo, on the playing field of a high school that closed its doors more than a decade ago. After losing their opening game, Japan went on to lift the trophy, beating Hong Kong in the final of a tournament that also featured fellow cricketing minnows China, the Philippines and Mongolia. The win came weeks after Japan's men qualified for next year's Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia. From baseball to cricket Cricket will feature at next year's Asian Games in Japan before it returns to the Olympic programme for the first time since 1900 at the Los Angeles Games. Japan's women won bronze at the 2010 Asian Games and the men made their debut at the 2023 edition, finishing with one win and one defeat. The men's team featured former professional baseball player Shogo Kimura, who took up cricket in 2017 after a 14-year career with some of Japan's biggest teams. Yanagida believes the Asian Games in Nagoya-Aichi and the Olympics can "have a really big impact" on cricket's profile in Japan. "It will be in the news as an Olympic sport so the media can help the name cricket become more widely known," she said. Qualifying for LA will be a tall order for Japan, whose men's T20 team are ranked 42nd in the world, with the women 43rd. All the players are amateurs and Curr says organising games against teams from outside Asia can be difficult. He concedes that there is "no silver bullet" to make cricket genuinely popular in Japan but that will not stop those who love the sport from trying. "You're not an overnight success, there's always a lot of stuff that goes on behind it and we're in that phase now," said Curr. © 2025 AFP
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Club World Cup marks 'new era' for football: Infantino
In an interview with AFP, Infantino also took aim at critics of FIFA's ticketing policy and said that skeptics who had questioned the need for the tournament would quickly change their minds. The 32-team competition, with clubs from all continents, gets under way with Inter Miami facing Egyptian club Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium. "It starts a new era of football, a new era of club football. A little bit like when, in 1930, the first World Cup, right, started," Infantino told AFP. "Everyone today speaks about the very first World Cup. That's why it's also, this World Cup here is historic." The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 and Infantino noted that only European and South American teams took part, adding that the Club World Cup would give a chance to clubs from outside of football's traditional heartlands to play on the global stage. "We want to be inclusive. We want to give opportunities to clubs from all over the world," he said. "It's really to globalise football, to make it truly, truly global. Because when you scratch the surface, we say it's the number one sport in the world, and it is but then the elite is very concentrated in very few clubs, in very few countries," he said. The Swiss official, who was general secretary of European body UEFA before taking the helm at FIFA in 2016, said that the club tournament also offered chances to players from over 80 countries. "Countries who would never have a chance to play in a World Cup are suddenly part of a World Cup and they feel to be part of it, the fans of these players and of these clubs," added Infantino, who noted several great players of the past who never played in a World Cup, "A very good friend of mine is George legend, great player, Ballon d'Or winner, only African player who ever won the Ballon d'Or, by the way. He never played in a World Cup. He would have been playing in a Club World Cup and made not only his club and also his country proud," he added. 'Something special' Infantino dismissed concerns that the tournament added to fixture congestion but acknowledged that some fans were yet to be sure of the value of the tournament, saying though that would quickly change. "I believe, I'm convinced that, you know, as soon as the ball starts rolling, the whole world will realise what is happening here. It's something special," he said. Reports of low uptake of tickets for same games has led to criticism of FIFA's ticketing policy with 'dynamic pricing', increasingly common in the United States, allowing for prices to rise and fall according to demand. But Infantino defended the approach and the decision to offer heavy discounts to students in Miami. "I'm a positive person generally, but they criticise FIFA if the prices are too high, then they criticise FIFA if the prices are too low. "Then they criticise FIFA if we make ticketing promotions with students. Students! I mean, when I was a student and I didn't have money, I would have loved FIFA to come to me and say, you want to come and watch a World Cup match?" "We don't want to see empty stadiums. I believe the stadiums will be pretty full," he said. The FIFA president said that the tournament, which secured a global broadcasting deal with DAZN reported to be worth $1 billion, was already an economic success and stressed that all the money generated from commercial deals would be ploughed back into the game. Asked how he would judge whether the tournament had been a success, Infantino said he would feel it in his 'heart' but said he was confident. "In terms of inclusivity, in terms of economy, in terms of fan interest, you take all of these criteria, we'll speak again at the end of the club World Cup, but already now, I (feel positive), when I look at the number of tickets sold, and I look at the TV rights," he said, noting that the games were available on DAZN's streams for free. "Tell me one top competition today, where you can watch football for free?" he asked. The Club World Cup has also been caught up in the US's fierce debates over immigration control with games being held near Los Angeles, scenes of violent clashes between protestors and immigration officers. "Security for me and for us is a top priority, always. So when something is happening, like in Los Angeles we are obviously monitoring the situation, we are in constant contact with the authorities, we want fans to go in games in a safe environment," he said.
France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
Scheffler hopes to solve sloppy bogeys, silly mistakes after 73
Scheffler, whose three wins in his past four starts included last month's PGA Championship, is trying to become the first back-to-back major winner since Jordan Spieth in 2015. But after his worst first round at a major compared to par, and seven strokes adrift of leader and US compatriot J.J. Spaun, he has a lot of work to do. "I made some silly mistakes out there," Scheffler said. "I just need to give myself some more looks at birdie. That's really all it came down to. "I'll clean up some of those mistakes and I think tomorrow will be a better day." Scheffler struggled with six bogeys against three birdies, a six-foot birdie putt at the second followed by three bogeys in the next four holes. "I felt like I did a pretty good job after the start, had kind of a sloppy bogey on three, sloppy bogey on four, and then another bogey on six and all of a sudden I'm a few over par," Scheffler said. "On this golf course, when you get over par early, it can feel like a daunting task. I did a good job of battling, and if I'm a little sharper tomorrow, I think I can score a bit better." Scheffler paid the price for getting even a little out of position. "It's just really hard to get the ball in play and it's really hard to get the ball close," he said. "Anytime you're out of position the golf course just gets really challenging. "It's not overly complicated. It's just difficult." A birdie at 11 was followed by bogeys at 13 and 15 to doom any hope of a late charge. "I would have liked to have finished a little better. I felt like I was battling back pretty well," Scheffler said. "The greens just got challenging out there late in the day. There's so much speed and so much pitch and then with the amount of guys going through on these greens, they can get a little bit bumpy. "But you know that's going to be part of the challenge going in. You've got to do your best to stay under the hole and stay patient." Scheffler will be set for a morning start on Friday. "I felt like I did a pretty good job of executing," he said. "I've just got to be a little bit sharper tomorrow. I've probably got to give myself a few more looks." He hopes to go a bit faster also. © 2025 AFP
