Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government and Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU) signed an agreement, today, 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 President, IRFU, Maneck Unwala, signed the agreement on behalf of the two parties, in the presence of Minister of Sports and Youth Services, Odisha, Tusharkanti Behera, Secretary Sports, Vishal K Dev, CEO, IRFU, Naseer Hussain, actor, director and former Rugby International player, Rahul Bose, U K Mohanty, IRFU Board Member and Head, Odisha Rugby and senior officials of Sports and Youth Services Department, at the Kalinga Stadium.
The Sponsorship will be extended towards training, conditioning and incentivizing the Indian national rugby teams (men & women) participating in international rugby events.
Speaking on the occasion, Sports Minister, Behera, highlighted, “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 Govt. of Odisha and Rugby India 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.”
Odisha, which has produced some famous names in Indian Rugby, has been promoting Rugby amongst other sports disciplines. “This association is a natural fit since our core objective aligns perfectly with 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 said.
This association with Rugby India is expected to further build the brand image of Odisha which has emerged as an important cog in the National Sporting ecosystem in recent years.
The partnership is based on Odisha Government’s mission to develop, promote and expand the Sports ecosystem beyond Hockey and Football. After sponsoring the National Hockey teams in 2018 for a period of five years, and later supporting the ISL team – Odisha FC, State of Odisha has set another benchmark today by sponsoring the National Rugby Teams.