Gerry Prabhu On CASA, Rugby India’s Growth, and RPL Season 2

Gerald (‘Gerry’) Prabhu is the Honorary Secretary of Rugby India, an Asia Rugby Executive Committee member (nominated by Japan) and part of the Central Asia South Asia (CASA) Alliance, which was formed in 2026.

He was voted onto the Rugby India board in 2019 when he won an election at the same time as Rahul Bose, who is the president of Rugby India.

He has helped complete a structural overhaul of the sports governance in India for rugby and has driven a commitment to equality. It is now the only national sports body in India with equal gender representation in administration, coaching and development programmes.

Gerry Prabhu On Why the CASA Alliance Was Formed And What Their Goals Are?

Gerry told Rugby Asia 247 from his home in India, “We were evaluating starting a federation like this, or what SEARF had done some time ago, and ultimately, our aim is to play more rugby. Forget the structure, forget everything else and get the players to play more. 

So we, the founding members, formed the CASA Alliance. With an alliance, there are no power structures, and we looked at what SEARF had done as a very good thing, because we need to play more, and we can’t wait for one major rugby tournament the entire year to be prepared.”

The formation was not straightforward. The complexities of the region mean Pakistan, for example, can not play in India or Bangladesh due to the political tensions, but the respective rugby unions and federations wanted more game time. A few years back, Sri Lanka was an option, but the Rugby Union at the time was in the courts and trying to reform its governance (which it has since resolved).

It was suggested to look for partners in Central Asia, something the governments backed too. Conversations started with Uzbekistan at first, who were excited by the prospect, then Nepal, Sri Lanka and the others joined in to have 11 rugby nations on board.

CASA Founding Members:

1. Iran
2. India
3. Sri Lanka
4. Pakistan
5. Nepal
6. Bangladesh
7. Afghanistan
8. Mongolia
9. Uzbekistan
10. Kazakhstan
11. Kyrgyzstan

One aspect Gerry Prabhu highlighted was that governments ask questions about player activity and tournament participation, and in an Indian context, this is important.

Indian players do not come from an elite or high-performance rugby background, and Rugby India has tried to spread the game in the vast populous country, with the sport played in the hinterlands and among the tribes. If those players win medals playing the sport, they are rewarded with jobs and income, which “makes a significant impact”, added Gerry Prabhu.

He explained that there are issues like the ongoing geopolitical situations and each union is facing its own set of challenges, but when they reached out to Asia Rugby and World Rugby, they got the approval to go ahead.

“All we wanted was some support in terms of the match officials. The Vice President of Bangladesh Rugby will be the CASA coordinator for the first two years, but CASA has no President or Chairman, like the SEARF model.

I think what SEARF is doing is amazing. I think we need more rugby, and we need everybody doing things in the region; otherwise, how do you grow the sport? Asia is too huge. From an Asia Rugby EXCO standpoint, I’ve expressed I am happy with what both CASA and SEARF are doing, and the political game should be kept outside all this. CASA is independent, and there is no interference from Asia Rugby – We will get guidance, but that’s it.”

The CASA 7s 2026 Tournament 

Six Women’s and six Men’s teams from CASA will compete in Tashkent for the alliance’s first tournament, which will take place in Tashkent from 16-17 May. Originally, they hoped that it would also be a debut for Tajikistan, but they won’t be competing.

Gerry Prabhu confirmed the CASA members would be signing a two-page memorandum on May 15. As part of the agreement, there is no financial model, and whoever hosts will cover costs; unions can raise funds through sponsorship, and participating members will try to contribute in some way

He added that the decision was to start with a Senior tournament, and this being the first tournament, it is going to be challenging, because there is no established setup, but we have to start somewhere. By doing this, we create not only a player pool, but a set of people with skills and experience to be match commissioners, organisers, and also try to give experience to the referees as well. So not only for the players, it’s for the match officials as well. 

Even in India, where our game is improving, we also need to improve the match officiating to the same level as the game, and these tournaments give us that exposure.

Women’s Teams

• Uzbekistan
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Mongolia
• India
• Sri Lanka

Men’s Teams

• Uzbekistan
• Kazakhstan
• Mongolia
• India
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka

Of future tournaments, he said that the next potential event would be age-grade youth 7s. “We are just looking at a host nation, and if that happens, then we would be looking at the Asia Rugby calendar, and then slot it in, but the focus for the next two years is on Sevens Rugby.”

He did add that in an Indian context and for CASA, they should not lose sight of the fifteens game. 

Rugby India’s Growth And Potential

Photo Supplied – Gerald Prabhu and Rahul Bose

Indian rugby has seen significant growth, but how happy is the Honorary Secretary of Rugby India with where the sport is at the moment?

Gerry Prabhu said, “Very happy. I’ve been on and off the board for the last 20 years, but as a Secretary since 2019. We went through a big transformation process, and we had to; otherwise, we were a group of friends running the show. In 2021, the government insisted that we revise our constitution and give voting rights to all the states, and we have 39 states, out of which close to 30 play rugby now, and there were about 26 playing when Rahul and I got elected.

Rahul and I were the only guys who had contested positions, while all the other positions were unanimously elected. If I am honest, it was a very difficult time for us because the people running the sport at that time didn’t believe it required change, but we both said it did. Everybody was friends, so fighting against friends was very difficult. 

We said we had one philosophy – that the players had to be at the centre of everything. So we did everything necessary for the players. We started getting the best coaches and the best facilities for our national team to train. We had a sports psychologist, nutritionist, everything. We’ve grown little by little.”

Photo Supplied

He added, “And then finally, we launched the RPL (Rugby Premier League) in 2025, which has given us additional visibility and corporations believe in us. We’ve managed to get rugby played as part of tribal games, youth sports, the National Games, and more people know about the sport in India.

Am I still happy about where we are – no. We want to do more, but we are happy we are on the right path. I’m very happy about the Women’s team doing well, and now that we’ve got a women’s RPL – this is like a dream come true for us.

What Impact Is the Rugby Premier League (RPL) Having on Indian Rugby?

Season 2 of the Rugby Premier League will take place from 16-28 June 2026, and there are three main changes in the second season: HSBC has joined as the Title Sponsor, the venue has shifted to Hyderabad, and most importantly, a Women’s section has been introduced with 4 franchises fielding women’s teams.

Gerry Prabhu said what the RPL has done is give the Indian player amazing confidence.

“Number one is just playing, playing with the top players has given them amazing confidence, and training with the best coaches in the world, too. There’s something great about rugby coaches. We had RPL coaches ask how they can contribute to Indian rugby, and we had these world-class coaches volunteer to help with some of our age-grade teams.

So the three things for our players are probably: Number One, the skills, Number Two is confidence, and Number Three, humility. 

They’ve understood what I mean when we’ve been talking about the pillars of Rugby, and that’s something that has really helped them. One of the franchisees (Chennai Bulls) has given a lot of exposure to these players and took them to Fiji (Coral Coast 7s) and now to Hong Kong, where they won the Plate at the HKFC 10s.

I’m sure it is going to help the Indian national team, the kind of confidence and the performance that these guys are experiencing. I hope that our women will experience the same benefits.

The inclusion of a Women’s section in season 2 probably surprised most of us – we knew it was in the pipeline, but maybe not so soon.

Gerry Prabhu said. “This was done on purpose. We worked very, very closely with World Rugby on this, very closely in terms of what kind of players need to be selected, and they provided great input.

Importantly, the franchisees were too keen to start this year with Women’s teams, and World Rugby was also very keen. If anything, we were the guys who were holding it back. This is what I like in all the franchisees – they want to see the sport grow. They’re willing to see that their investment in that growth lasts for a long period. They don’t want immediate returns, so we have a good set of franchisees. They have signed for 10 years, and it’s extendable to another 10 years. 

The Bangalore franchise (Bengaluru Bravehearts) – they run educational institutions and hospitals, and some of the largest in India. The Delhi Redz franchise is a large real estate developer. They run IT parks, and they are looking at setting up a fan zone in the IT park so that people can watch the RPL this season. 

The Kalinga (which is Odisha) have moved their base to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), and will be called the Kolkata Banga Tigers are into mining, while the Chennai Bulls franchisee is also a major mining company. The Mumbai Dreamers franchisee’s background is sports gaming, and then of course, the RPL is backed by GMR, who are investing a lot into sports.”

Stay tuned as we will be publishing an ultimate fans’ guide to the RPL 2026 closer to the tournament.

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