Odisha Govt To Sponsor Indian National Rugby Teams Till 2023

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government and Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU) on Tuesday signed an agreement to sponsor the Indian national rugby teams for the next three years, till 2023, and facilitate high-performance training and conditioning of the players.

Director- cum-Additional Secretary, Odisha, R Vineel Krishna and IRFU President Maneck Unwala signed the agreement on behalf of the two parties, in the presence of Minister of Sports and Youth Services Tusharkanti Behera, Secretary Sports, Vishal K Dev, CEO, IRFU, Naseer Hussain, actor, director and former Rugby International player Rahul Bose, IRFU Board Member and Head, Odisha Rugby U K Mohanty, and senior officials of Sports and Youth Services Department, at the Kalinga Stadium here.

The sponsorship will be extended towards training, conditioning and incentivizing the Indian national rugby teams (men and women) participating in international rugby events.

“This is a significant partnership for us. In recent years, we have seen 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. And this partnership between will not only help develop the sport of rugby further in Odisha and India but also support and strengthen the high-performance training of Indian National Rugby Teams,” said the Minister.

Odisha, which has produced some famous names in Indian Rugby, has been promoting Rugby among other sports disciplines.

“This association is a natural fit since our core objective aligns perfectly with the promotion of the sport, which is already gaining grounds in several States. We hope this initiative will help nurture young talent, create a pathway from grassroots to elite and produce more players who can bring laurels to the country” he added.

The state had earlier sponsored the National Hockey teams in 2018 for a period of five years, and later supported the ISL team.