Seven young athletes from Bengal set sights on rugby glory to be held in Mumbai
Telegraph | 12 April 2025
Seven young athletes from Bengal are gearing up for a never-seen-before spectacle of the sport that has changed their lives.
They will play in the world’s first franchise-based Rugby league, which will be held in Mumbai from June 1 to 15.
The Rugby Premier League (RPL), modelled on the IPL, will have teams from Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar.
The league, held under the aegis of Rugby India, the national governing body, aims to revolutionise the sport in India and provide a global platform for the country’s emerging players.
It will boast a star-studdedinternational line-up, welcoming30 marquee international players from powerhouse Rugby Sevensnations. Rubbing shoulders with them will be Indian talents.
The team names and logos were unveiled as the competition’s first player draft was held on April 4. Thirty Indian players were selected from an auction pool of 71.
Seven of the selected are products of Khelo Rugby by Future Hope, a project that takes sporting and social development opportunities into marginalised communities across Bengal.
Among them is Rajdeep Saha, a 23-year-old from Murshidabad. At the April 4 auction, Saha was sold to Delhi Redz, fetching ₹2.75 lakh to become one of the highest-paid Indians.
He lost his mother when he was two and was raised in an orphanage before being spotted by Paul Walsh, a former British diplomat and the mentor-leader of Khelo Rugby.
Saha started playing rugby when he was 10. By 18, he represented the Indian senior rugby team. Saha, who can play as a scrum-half, fly-half, centre and a hooker, has represented India in Japan, England and Wales, Indonesia, South Africa and Singapore.
“For me, the best part of RPL is to be able to play with some of the global superstars of the game, people I have grown up admiring. Playing in the same team as Jordan Conroy (the Irish Rugby Sevens star and one of the top names in the circuit) is a dream come true. I could not have asked for more,” said Saha.
Apart from Conroy, the international list comprises some of
the biggest names in the sport like Perry Baker, Rosko Speckman and Harry
McNulty.
Specman, the 35-year-old South African superstar, will play alongside
Arjun Mahato for Kalinga Black Tigers.
Mahato, who will turn 20 next
month, grew up in a colony in Taratala, gateway to the southwestern fringes of
Calcutta. His father passed away when Arjun was two months old.
His mother
worked at a factory that baked biscuits, cookies, rusk and cakes. He came under
the fold of Khelo Rugby when he was eight.
“It is going to be hard not to be
intimidated by his presence. But I will do my best,” said Mahato, who has
played for the India under-18 team. He fetched ₹50,000 at the auction.
Future
Hope is an NGO that runs a school for street children on Rowland Row in
Ballygunge. For nearly 40 years, it has made a difference to the lives of
hundreds of girls and boys, many of whom were left abandoned on the streets or
their parents were too poor to get them educated. They found a home in Future
Hope and built their lives afresh.
Apart from Saha and Mahato, the other Future
Hope players in the tournament are Akash Balmiki, Sukumar Hembrom, Arpan
Chhetri, Karan Rajbhar and Sumit Kumar Roy.
Balmiki went to Mumbai Dreamers for
₹90,000; Hembrom and Roy went to Hyderabad Heroes for ₹60,000 and ₹1.25
lakh, respectively. Rajbhar was sold to Bengaluru Bravehearts for ₹80,000 and
Chhetri went to the same team for ₹60,000.
The money is not much,
especially compared to the astronomical amounts some players get in cash-rich
cricket or other sports leagues.
The difference is that players like Saham
Balmiki, Roy and Mahato are amateurs. This league has the potential to
transform them into professional rugby players.
Walsh put things in perspective.
“When they go into an India camp, they get an allowance.
When they leave the
camp, the allowance is gone. When they play for Future Hope, we look after
them. We make sure they can travel to tournaments. We give them food and kits.
Some of them get scholarships to go to college. Nobody gets a salary for being
a rugby player,” he said.
The RPL, which will be broadcast live, will increase
rugby’s exposure.
“More people will be excited by the game. It will have a
long-term impact on the game across the country. People will want profit, but
at the same time, they need a good product. So, the investments will hopefully
go into Indian players,” Walsh said.