WHAT IT'S LIKE TO ...BRING RUGBY TO INDIA'S STREETS

RW finds out why Kolkata kids are picking up the oval ball in Quins shirts

- Josh Grahan

THE LEAFY Surrey suburbs with which Harlequins are associated could not be further from the streets of Kolkata, where thousands struggle with life below the poverty line. So why is it that street children from the West Bengal state can be seen running around and not only playing rugby but donning Harlequins shirts from years gone by to do so? To answer that we must go back some 37 years...

In 1987, Tim Grandage was the bank manager of an HSBC branch in Kolkata when he struck up a bond with some of the local street children as they looked after his car. By talking to them, he soon became aware of the daily horrors many of them have to face. It was something he couldn’t turn a blind eye to and soon he had 35 of them sleeping safely on the floor of his flat!

Of course, that was never going to be sustainable and within a few years he quit his job and started the charity Future Hope. That’s where rugby comes in. Due to the extreme trauma many of the street kids suffer, they find it hard to settle and Grandage introduced sport to tire them out and develop team skills.

Cricket is the sport for everyone and anyone in India, where it’s practically a religion. So how did those children with absolutely nothing grow to learn and love rugby union, traditionally the domain of the Indian sporting elite?

“You could put it down to two things, the first being coincidence,” says Grandage.