Kolkata, June 17 -- India has increasingly grown into a market for diverse sports leagues. What Lalit Modi conceptualized 17 years ago with the razzmatazz of the Indian Premier League not only changed the landscape of cricket globally, but also paved the way for other sports to follow suit. After the success of tournaments like the Pro Kabaddi League, India, on Sunday, uncorked another fresh bottle of wine - the Rugby Premier League (RPL).

Like cricket, rugby too was introduced to India by the British in the 1870s, although it initially involved only a few scratch matches played in Calcutta and Madras. It wasn't until 1998 that the sport got its own governing body in the country, which later became a full member of World Rugby. The natio...