KISS rugby boys back to prove mettle abroad again

Rugby-playing boys of tribal school KISS are back again to dazzele on foreign turf. A 12-member rugby team of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), a sister concern of KIIT University, is set to leave Bhubaneswar on August 10 to play a seven-match friendly series in Australia from August 12 to 24. "The under-14 team will play its opening match at Darwin and follow it with two matches each at Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne," KISS founder secretary Dr Achyut Samanta said at a media conference here on Saturday. This will be the third exposure tour in a year for the KISS rugby team, which shot into prominence by winning an under-14 international invitation tournament last september at London and followed it with another impressive performance in an under-13 tournament two months ago, also at London. All expenses of tour Down Under are being borne by Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India. "Exim Bank is supporting the KISS rugby team with the objective to help the tribal boys become capable of representing India in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi," claimed T C Venkat Subramanian, the CMD of the bank. "The bank will help set up an exclusive rugby ground and gymnasium in the school premises besides providing equipment and international exposure to the boys," he added. Subramanian laid the foundation stone of the rugby ground and inaugurated the gymnasium on the occasion. According to bank Director S Srinivas, the ground is expected to be ready for use by year end. The team: Rajkishore Murmu (capt), Bikash Chandra Murmu (vice-capt), Chittaranjan Murmu, Babula Malka, Bukai Hansda, Niranjan Biswal, Hadidhangda Majhi, Sahadev Majhi, Gouranga Jamuda, Narasingha Kerai, Barial Beshra, Ganesh Hembram. Coach: Rudrakesh Jena.