Two from Orissa in India`s first women`s rugby team

Rugby India today announced India’s first Women’s National rugby for the inaugural Asian Women’s Rugby 7s Tournament to be held at Pattaya, Thailand on May 30 and 31, 2009. Avani Sabade from Pune will lead the 13-member squad, which features two players from Orissa (Sangeeta Minz and Jashobanti Pradhan). Other members of the squad include Neha Pardeshi, Shruti Marathe, Ketaki Khare, Vahbiz Barucha, Shweta Parchande, Gayatri Salunke, Niharika Bal, Anu Kulkarni, Vaishnavi Sose and Surabhi Date. The team was selected from the top performers at the All India Women’s 7s Tournament held at Bombay Gymkhana in Mumbai last week. Interestingly, before the National squad was finalized, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) proudly announced that two of its students (Hiramani Kisku and Parbati Murmu) had been included in the National squad. Like most of its previous announcement related to rugby, this one also turned out to be a lie as none of the two girls could made it to the final squad. It was thus proved correct that using sports to gain publicity mileage and using publicity mileage to boost business, which revolves around education, has become a habit for KISS.