RAHUL KAMAT
The President of Goa Rugby Association Anish Quenim talks to team TNV about his journey in the game of Rugby
Q. How did you come across Rugby and how you got attracted to it?
When I was studying in a University at England I saw a team playing there and I found it very interesting so I had a word with the team and then I got a try-out there. I really enjoyed playing the game in England while I was studying there. I also started following Rugby on television. The values of the sport, the way players respect the referees, the way players are involved and their entire discipline on and off the field were things that attracted me to the game.
Q. How is the response for the sport in Goa?
It’s very good, we are very satisfied with the response that we have received. We registered our association in 2014 and we finished three seasons, now we are heading in to season four. We have got a lot of schools involved with us and we have a great setup that’s managing the whole thing. We are quite happy the way things are progressing.
Q. How does the association operate?
Initially when we started, the association was doing all the work and as we progressed we started four franchises which are now managing the development of the game. We have set up a franchise each in the North South East and West. The North franchise is called Crazy Pirates, the South franchise is called the Crocotryles, the West franchise is called the Trymates and East is called Saints. We also have our coaching academies with one main coach in each academy along with sub-junior coaches and assistant coaches. We have appointed business development manager who manages growth of the club and gets more players involved, then we have a player relationship manager, a specialised services manager who brings in the doctors, then we have a sponsorship manager, a media manager, a social media manager, we even have an event manager, a coaching design manager and a facilities manager who looks after the facilities where we train.
Q. How the franchises in the four zones function?
The areas which they manage are all on our website Goa Rugby.com. We have mentioned the areas which each club manages. These clubs are owned by very young Goans. We didn’t want to open our club to people who actually wouldn’t work on and off the field at the same time. So for us it was very important that the owner must be a role model on and off the field so that’s the reason our first criteria was that the owner has to be a player cum coach.
Q. What is the number of players registered with the Goa Rugby Association?
There is a difference between trained players, people who have been educated about the game and people who know about the game. People who know about the game are more than 50,000 which is because of our reach in schools where we conducted camps and programmes to introduce the game.From there we filter down to 10,000 players who get attracted to the game and are interested to know more about the game. Now these 10,000 players are divided across the four zones and from these we get an average player base of around a 1000 in each club, so that’s around 4000 players who go on to register to become professional players and play under different categories such as the under 11, under 14, under 17 and senior format.
Q. Tell us about the tournaments organised in Goa?
The four franchises which are setup in the North South East and West look after the promotion and development of the game. We have four leagues and each league is managed by one club. One league happens at the end of monsoons in the month of August or September which we call the ‘Superheroes Beach Rugby League’ where the players dress up as superheroes and play, then we have one which is held at the end of October which is called the ‘Halloween Rugby’ which revolves around the theme of Halloween, then there is one at the end of December which is called the ‘Christmas Rugby’ and we have one at the end of January or early February which is called the ‘Carnival Rugby.’
Q. How many states are playing Rugby and what is the scenario in India?
We have 16 states competing at the Nationals in the men’s category and there are six to nine women’s teams. Honestly each state is different and each state manages the game differently. We have a National Federation that lays down the guidelines and conducts Nationals in an effective manner. It is great to see an overwhelming response in the country and also to see the amount of hard work put in by other states. So I can say that the sport is definitely here to stay because another great thing that happened was the School Games Federation of India has included Rugby in their format. Even the Indian Olympics Association has included Rugby in their format since Rugby was introduced in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The sport is also played at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, so this sport now being included in all these events that India participates in gives us a great promise to try and make it to the Indian team for all these events.
Q. Who are the sponsors involved?
Goa Rugby is a self-sponsored federation. It is run by the players and the people. How we do it is we charge the players that we reach out to, a basic fee of Rs 200 for the whole year. When you have such a large player base with so many people attracted towards the game, even if everyone pays Rs 100 or Rs 200 that goes a long way. Secondly, because we are doing actual grass-root work for the villages of Goa, a lot of foreigners and Goans living abroad find that as a very attractive way of maintaining their relationship with Goa, so they get in touch with us and they send us donations and a lot of sponsorship for the kids. Besides this, our main sponsors are Qrab which is our merchandise company which gives us a lot of stuff, and Banquet Sports that looks after our match day and non-match day hospitality. We are also building up towards a great form of employment as well, because through Goa Rugby we have launched two companies called the Qrab and Armchair which have been launched with a specific purpose, and the purpose is that whatever we earn here, a part of the profit goes back for Rugby development and also when our players turn 18 we have jobs waiting for all of them.
Q. What are the future plans for Rugby in Goa?
Every day we come up with a new idea. This year our main focus is to transition from the game of touch to contact in a properly organised manner. The second thing what we wanted to do this year which we have already achieved is that two of our clubs have got their own grounds and we will be getting two more. The next thing is, we are planning to expand the age groups. This year we are trying to get into the veterans segment where we will push the age bar even above 35 and 40 years and encourage even the older players to come out and try this game. We are also trying to associate with a lot of other things such as the marathons and other sports related events which happen in Goa, so our whole point is that we want to grow with other sports and we want other sports to grow with us.
