PrashantNews
The story of Uttarakhand rugby head coach Yashwant Singh (25) appears a bit familiar with the role of Kabir Khan in Chak De! India movie played by the megastar Shahrukh Khan.
Just like Khan, Singh also encountered lots of difficulties before he actually built a rugby woman team of the hill state. In a short span of four years, the woman rugby team is now hoping to win gold medal in the coming National Games in Dehradun starting from Jan 28.
During the covid time, Singh along with other boys developed a playground for rugby on the banks of Solani river near Roorkee town in Haridwar district. ‘Actually it was a deserted land and so we built a playground and started playing rugby there. But soon the locals started opposing our rugby practice saying they are using the land for agriculture. But with the support of the then SDM Roorkee Ashish Mishra and other local administrative officials, we were allowed to play rugby on the Solani river playground,” said Singh, who is being credited for building the state women and men rugby teams.
By the year 2019, only four girls used to play rugby in Uttarakhand. “I was desperate to build a women rugby team also but we were not finding more girls,” said Singh.
Soon, Singh saw Saloni who was only 16-17 years of age. She used to see them playing rugby in the playground. “I tried to convince her (Saloni) to play rugby as we were having only four girls at that time. Saloni was from poor background as her father was a rickshaw driver. Anyway, we were able to convince the family members and Saloni started playing rugby. Soon, other girls also got inspired and joined the team,” said an elated Singh at the Maharana Pratap Sports College in Dehradun where the rugby team is doing the rigorous practice these days ahead of the National Games.
Singh also narrated the story of Shivani Pal (21) of the state women rugby team. Just like Saloni, Shivani also comes from poor background as her father is a labourer. Shivani joined the rugby team because she wanted to play a tough game. “I love rugby because it is a very tough game,” said Shivani.
Significantly, Singh not only built the women rugby team but he is also credited for raising men rugby team that too at a time when he was also its member. “In March last year, our Uttarakhand men team won a bronze medal in national 15-s championship. In this team I was also the coach as well as its member,” said Singh who is official head coach of both women and men rugby team since 2021.
“This is a good beginning for rugby in Uttarakhand. We are very hopeful for the bright future of our boys and girls,” said Amit Sinha, special secretary sports and ADGP.