Corner of a foreign field

Its no stretch of imagination,then,that Pepsi,Lee,Sam and Jagga should end up with a rugby club,leaving imprints of their game on their small village,though the sport is still viewed as relatively alien and foreign even by the elite of the capital. Unlike port-cities Mumbai and Kolkata,Delhi hardly ever could boast of a long tradition or legacy in this sport. But,Maidan Garhi,hitherto unknown beyond being the rickety passageway to IGNOU,has now emerged as a scouting hub for big-bodied hardy boys in rugby,with their wild spirits showing in every sprinting stride,as they earn their spots in the Indian team for the CWG Sevens.

Three in the squad,five in the probables,and three more on the fringes of donning India colours,Delhis village boys have also overturned the stereotype of an Indian rugger: Wealthy boys from the urban elite of Mumbai and Kolkata,dashing across and tackling on the well-manicured pitches of Bombay Gymkhana and Calcutta Cricket amp; Football Club CCFC. In time for the 2010 spectacle,the capital hosting the CWG Sevens will be well represented by home grown locals,as rugby gains in territory and draws talent from the hinterland.

Kuldeep Singh Bisht was part of Indias maiden international 15s rugby squad in 1998,playing alongside first captain Aga Hussain and actor Rahul Bose. After his retirement,the former lower-division cricketer and boxer got involved with coaching the-then spartan Delhi rugby team. The slowly bulging numbers though forced the capital unit to be split five years ago,and thus was born Delhi Hurricanes,yet another name influenced by rugby legend Jonah Lomus Wellington Hurricanes.

The other half of Delhi Lions,based at Bawana,continued to be popular with boys from the capitals western and northern areas. Hurricanes,though,forged together the best of blokes from southern Delhi outskirts,after Bisht asked his co-workers at IGNOU to bring in kids from the neighbouring villages. Maidan Garhi,it would seem,was waiting for this new,sporty wave of influence as boys learnt their first basic back-pass in 2005.

Farmland was lost to IGNOU some years ago but rugby stepped in gaining ground amongst youngsters. There was something worse for the villagers than them losing their farms,and seeing sudden riches,with nothing to do with their time, Bisht says. There had begun this trend of easy-money leading to bad habits for youngsters. Everyone wanted to keep their sons away from drinking and road-raging. I knew this sport would bring in the discipline, he explains. The soil was fertile to plant the seeds of rugby one of the best outlets for men of the aggressive variety.

With Bishts contemporaries,in their 40s,easing out of the sport,the coach turned to the likes of Gautam Dagar a talented scrum-half and Pepsi now Indias first-choice flanker to put together a team that could take on first their city-rivals from the north,Delhi Lions,and then the rest of the Indian challengers. The Hurricanes vs Lions rivalry is like India-Pakistan. These days they say in Indian rugby circles,that if you want to watch a good,brutal game,come watch the Delhi local derby. They rely on their big forwards and expats,we are better with our swift,speedy backs, Bisht stresses.

Not that the Hurricanes werent helped by their own expats notably Frenchman Francois DuPont working with arms dealers Thales who helped with the kitting and equipment. But it was the Hurricanes greater success rate in seeing their boys graduate to the India-level that made Maidan Garhi the epicentre of rugby in the capital.

The two pairs of brothers Lee-Gautam and Pepsi-Jagga have all been at the Indian camp with multiple international representations. Jagga traveled to Brunei earlier this year as one of Indias youngest colts captains at 16 at the Asian U-20s,and would have made the CWG squad as flanker,but for his age hes still not the mandatory 19 years. And when did he first know that he wanted to play rugby? When he saw his elder sibling Pepsi get his head stitched up after a nasty blow!

Pepsi,the first junior to get into the Indian team,had been playing a particularly attritional game for the Hurricanes once,even as Jagga then a newbie watched in horror and amazement as his brother held a bloodied head requiring 15 stitches around the left eye. Id taken Kuldeep sirs place in similar circumstances when he limped off,but Jagga became a hero as he was only 13 when he ran onto the field to replace me, Pepsi says with nonchalant pride.

His mother threw a fit at home seeing the elder son with his distorted eye after the 2008 incident. But Pepsis father a former pehelwan and kabaddi player with the Delhi Police had insisted that the gangly Jagga join in as well,declaring,Khoon niklega toh naya khoon banega. If you spill blood,youll also form new blood. My brother always came home and recounted tales from the pitch. I couldnt wait to start playing, Jagga recalls. Now village kids are seen passing balls back,and they ask him about drop-kick techniques,or if when tackling the head fits inside or to the out.

Bisht had feared as soon as he saw Pepsi on the stretcher that rugby in Maidan Garhi would soon close down with parents likely to boom their apprehension. Jaggas small steps,he had soon reckoned would be giant strides for the village,till then dabbling casually at athletics and bodybuilding,volleyball and its hard-ball variant of shooting-ball,but nothing like a full-blown contact sport. Bisht,himself,had torn his knee ligaments after stepping onto the field for Deepak Dagars 10-minute injury-bin,and knew that scars and wounds were second skin to ruggers.

Flummoxed as they remained by the back-pass in their early years in the sport,rugby always offered the perfect package for fitness in these bucolic settings,with fathers never tiring of telling children tales from their years as champion wrestlers. But rugby also helped us travel like never before. Its a big deal to go abroad from villages,and now in the last two years weve visited at least 15-20 countries for CWG exposure. Its the biggest incentive to do well in this sport,despite the constant injuries, says Lee,whose speedy runs down the wings and felicity in stepping,made him the man of the tournament at a recent competition in Turkey.

The last word though,is reserved for the king of borrowed nicknames,Pepsi that sounds more like Papsi when they talk of him around the capital. Rugbys a real mans game and a good audience sport. But its not popular,so girls dont come to watch, he says,a touch sad,before lighting up to deliver an honest assessment of Delhi ruggers. There are two characteristics of Delhi rugby players: they keep looking at girls,aur angrezi thodi kam hi aati hai. They speak little English. Small matter. For English is on the IGNOU list of correspondence. And Maidan Garhi isnt even all that long a distance.