Mumbai: It took a bid of Rs 4.75 lakh for sports fans to sit up and take note of Mohit Khatri—and rugby. With the inaugural Rugby Premier League kicking off on 1 June, the stakes are high. Bengaluru Bravehearts’ bid for the rugby player from Haryana was the highest for any Indian player. Now, with its IPL-like facelift, Khatri is banking on the buzz around the league to propel the sport he loves deeper in India.
“Local schools and clubs will see a rise in interest in the game. They will be able to introduce rugby to kids who didn’t have the opportunity until now,” said Khatri. He is one of the four ‘Khatri brothers’ who have devoted their lives to the sport.
There’s a lot riding on India’s inaugural Rugby Premier League. The world’s first franchise-based league by Rugby India in partnership with GMR Sports places the game on a global stage. Six teams—Bengaluru Bravehearts, Chennai Bulls, Delhi Redz, Hyderabad Heroes, Kalinga Black Tigers, and Mumbai Dreamers—will battle it out over 34 games from 1-15 June. It will unfold at Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Kreeda Ani Lalitkala Prarthisthan Andheri Sports Complex, which has earlier hosted events from the humble kabaddi and kho kho to pickleball.
This will also be the first time that Indian rugby professionals team up with their international counterparts. Up until now, they had competed against and studied them on television.
“Now, we will get a first-hand experience of their game level and fitness. Players will get to improve themselves, and match their talent to global level. This will help the Indian national team in the coming years,” said Khatri, who started playing rugby at the age of 13, and was an Olympic qualifier in 2023.
The live broadcast on Star Sports and JioStar is expected to inspire millions of viewers and get rugby a legion of Indian fans.
“The 16-minute format – four minutes of four quarters, with a two-minute break in between each quarter – sees a score every 100-110 seconds, which is a complete win-win for television,” said Rahul Bose, president of the Indian Rugby Football Union.
International players
Rahul Bose has long been the face of rugby in India, championing the sport in a cricket-obsessed country. And like Khatri, he’s looking forward to international players competing in India.
“The most exciting bit is that our Indian players will get to play with the best international players,” said Bose.
World Rugby cleared up a 15-day window pausing the international rugby sevens tournaments (called HSBC SVNS) for the period to ensure availability of best global players for the league.
Each team comprises five international, five Indian, and three bridge players.
Thirty international players are from Argentina, South Africa, Kenya, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Fiji, USA, and Ireland. These include top players like two-time World Rugby 7s ‘Player of the Year’ and three-time Olympian Perry Baker from the US and 2024 Olympic Games silver winner Waisea Nacuqu from Fiji.
Another 18 from Canada, Hong Kong, and Germany will feature as bridge players (from countries outside the main World Rugby Sevens ecosystem) alongside the Indian players. While international players were bought for $10,000 and $20,000 a month, bids for bridge players were in the range of $2,500-$4,000. For Indian players, bids began at Rs 50,000.
Khatri, who became the most expensive Indian rugby player, has captained the men’s team at the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy (ARST) 2024 held in Nepal and helped Haryana’s rugby team win three consecutive gold medals at the National Games. Other top Indian players to watch out for are Vallabh Patil (Chennai Bulls), Rajdeep Saha (RMZ’s Delhi) Captain of the Indian rugby team Prince Khatri (the second highest bid of Rs 3.75 Lakh for Hyderabad Heroes) and Neeraj Khatri (Mumbai Dreamers).
The Rugby Premier League, said Khatri, will provide players the platform to
showcase talent on a national level, improve visibility and recognition. The hope is that they will be household names like Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya.
“This also creates opportunities to play more games, getting selections in Indian national camps, and elevating the standard of the game,” Khatri said.
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Long tryst with rugby
While India was in the throes of cricket fever, another sport, more rugged and bruising, was nonchalantly being played at the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club. That was back in 1792. A few but prominent Indian players such as Isha Khan and Nandu Chandavarkar played shoulder to shoulder with the ‘colonial foreigners’ without garnering much attention.
The birth of the Bombay Gymkhana in 1875 as an elite club only for private members did not help the sport. For years, rugby remained restricted to private clubs and the Indian Army as well. A few teams like Chennai Cheetahs (1997) and Delhi Hurricanes (2004) carved a name for themselves in the sport. But it had yet to gain nationwide appeal.
The story flipped when India hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2010. For the first time, it was televised for everybody to watch. Soon, players from rural India, small towns, and two-tier cities were passing the ball. Today, the sport is played in 322 Indian districts with the women’s team at the 10th spot in Asia and the men’s team ranked 15th out of 36 nations.
Rugby India, the official governing body for the sport in the country, eyes the league as an opportunity to grow rugby in India. Most players are from rural India and Gerald Prabhu, honorary secretary at Rugby India, is looking forward to the league with the hope that it will bring them some long-overdue national and international exposure.
“We’re doing it for development, not just entertainment. More people across the country will start playing the sport and therefore attract more eyeballs,” said Prabhu.
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‘New days for rugby’
The much-anticipated league was six years in the making. It took a while to draw in sponsors and media, and get everything in place, the organisers said.
GMR Sports saw the larger picture and jumped in to run the tournament when they were offered to own a franchise.
“The league aims to elevate rugby in India and redefine the future of the sport. RPL will not only captivate a wider audience but also provide Indian players with invaluable opportunities to compete alongside the world’s best, thereby raising the standard of rugby in our country,” said Satyam Trivedi, CEO, GMR Sports.
Franchisee owners are betting heavily on rugby to make inroads in India.
Cameron Meekin who is the owner of the only international franchise, Chennai Bulls, wanted to give back to the sport he grew up playing.
“I’d love nothing more than to see India win a medal at the Olympics. We want to grow the game in India, not just the franchise,” said Meekin, CEO of AvidSports, an Indian-Australian sports company, which is part of the AvidSys Group.
Bose compares the league to a sprint in the larger marathon that the Rugby India is trying to run.
“The marathon that we’re running is about deepening, strengthening and showing a more attractive pathway to the youth to make rugby a way of life, to make it a career,” said Bose.
The actor said schools should mark children on sports. No parent then will ever say no to a child going out to play. “Remember, playing a sport also ensures good physical and mental health,” he said.
But, for now, the league’s goal is a clear one – to popularise the sport and its talented players.
“RPL is a silver bullet: 10 million people will witness it. When we see rugby being played on the streets of Mumbai, that’s when we know that it’s caught fire,” Bose said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)