article: "Hockey?" suggested a teenager uncertainly. "Basketball?" ventured another. Most people simply shook their heads. "Sorry," said one middle-aged man, sipping on a glass of tea. "We don't play that game here." For fans of rugby union, Kolkata - formerly called Calcutta - is synonymous with the Calcutta Cup - the annual game played between England and Scotland that had its origins here in the 1870s. The city remains India's rugby capital - and although about 40,000 people nationwide play the game according to the sport's administrators - that lack of recognition is its biggest struggle. "Rugby is basically not known as a sport," says Noomi Mehta, president of the Indian Rugby Football Board - recalling the game's comically-inaccurate portrayal in a local Tamil film - a clip of which is now doing the rounds on the internet. "It was basically gang warfare on a field." He can see the funny side, but says the lack of understanding is making it hard for the sport to attract the money needed to spread the game and encourage promising players. "Getting sponsors is hard. We have had them in the past, but they stay for a year or two years and then they look elsewhere," Mr Mehta says. Indian rugby remains fully amateur - with power centred around just two clubs - one in Kolkata and another in Mumbai. Both are members-only establishments - set up way back under British rule. The welcome is warm and friendly, and the oak-panelled clubhouses and trophy cabinets carry an air of history and tradition - or elitism - depending on your point of view. But even having basic facilities, like changing rooms, make them the go-to venues for almost all the country's major tournaments. Shaking off that stuffy image - and showing more international rugby on Indian television - would be a good way to popularise the game says Mr Mehta, who thinks rugby's future lies in India's rural hinterland. The Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy presented to the winner of the England versus Scotland rugby union match which takes place during the annual Six Nations Championship. After the introduction of rugby to India in 1872, the Calcutta (Rugby) Football Club was set up by former students of Rugby School in January 1873. It joining the Rugby Football Union in 1874, but with the departure of a local British army regiment interest in the sport waned. The members decided to disband and withdrew the club's funds from the bank, which were in Silver Rupees. These were then melted down and made into a cup which they presented to the RFU in 1878, on the understanding that it should be competed for annually. And like football, hockey, badminton and (Indian sport) kabaddi have already done - Mr Mehta says rugby could learn from the success of cricket's Indian Premier League - creating a made-for-television short format tournament with Bollywood owners, music, and razzmatazz that attracts international players by making it financially worth their while. "You can find sponsors at that level," Mr Mehta confidently predicts. Not
summary: On the streets of Kolkata, I carried out a fairly unscientific experiment - showing passers-by a rugby ball and asking if they knew which sport it was used for.