Ghising to boost rugby in young nations as a new vice-president of Asia Rugby

Kathmandu, Nov. 14: Tanka Lal Ghising, member secretary of the National Sports Council (NSC), was elected as one of the three vice presidents of Asia Rugby, rugby’s governing body in Asia, during the Annual General Meeting in Bangkok on November 8. 

Earlier elected as a member of the Executive Committee of Asia Rugby from 2019 to 2024, Ghising, also a former president of the Nepal Rugby Association is now at a higher and more influential place and aims to utilise his position to develop the sport in young countries like Nepal.

Talking to The Rising Nepal, Ghising said, “When I announced my candidacy for the executive committee earlier, I had clarified it as a step to raise the voice of young countries associated with Asia Rugby. My agendas have not changed much since. As a vice president, I still aim to develop the sport in young and struggling nations while advocating for more rights.”

For instance, by more rights, Ghising suggested increasing the number of countries with voting rights. Currently, 11 countries represent 70 per cent of the votes at World Rugby.

Elections in Bangkok were conducted for 13 posts in Asia Rugby: a President, a Deputy President, three Vice Presidents, a World Rugby Council Member and seven Executive Committee Members. Alongside Ghising, Pakistan’s Rizwan Ur Rab Malik and Japan’s Kensuke Iwabuchi won the elections for the vice president posts.

“This time, there are nine new faces in the 13-member Executive Committee where the President (Qais Al Dhalai), Deputy President (Terence Khoo) and World Rugby Council Member have remained the same. It shows that young countries are aiming for better opportunities in rugby, and I plan to aid the idea,” Ghising said.

According to Ghising, he looks forward to strengthening ties with rugby unions across Asia and utilising the relation for the development of sports in the continent as well as Nepal.

Voicing for young unions

The Nepal Rugby Association (NRA) was established in Nepal in 1992 and was certified by the National Sports Council (NSC) in 1995. 

However, the first national rugby tournament in Nepal had to wait for the year of 2014 which laid the foundation for the country’s first national (7s) sides. It was only a year later, in June 2015, that Nepal was admitted as an associate member of Asia Rugby. 

Ghising was the president of NRA when those developments took place; he led the NRA for 11 years before entering the NSC as the member-secretary in 2021.

In May 2023, Nepal and Qatar were the two countries to be granted full membership status by World Rugby. 

“Nepal is a new country in rugby in Asia. However, Nepal has shown great promise over the years following which the country got the chance to host three Asian tournaments consecutively,” said Ghising.

Nepal successfully hosted the Asian U18 Sevens in 2022 and the Asian U20 Sevens in 2023 before the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Trophy (ARST) last month. Ghising said that Nepal hosted the three tournaments when several countries moved back citing a lack of enough sponsorship in the post-covid era. “A decision has been reached to allow the four best teams of the ARST into the Asia Rugby Sevens Series (ARSS), the elite tournament of Rugby 7s in Asia. It will allow more emerging nations to compete with the best ones,” said Ghising.

Similarly, Ghising informed that the new executive team was also under discussion to divide the ARST into two zones as Asia is a big continent. “By dividing the tournament into two zones, the teams will feel at ease in the context of travel time, distance and cost. It will also encourage more countries towards rugby.”

Likewise, Ghising stated that he also wanted to reduce the dependency of young countries on World Rugby and Asia Rugby. “There is a need for proper sponsorship and marketing plans for Asian countries. Asia has the opportunity, for instance, Asian businesses can be seen sponsoring the world’s top sporting events abroad.”

“Working as a team, all the executive members have the aim to develop the sport throughout Asia in a professional manner. Asia Rugby will also be providing financial assistance for the members to hire top-class coaches three months before the tournaments. It will be of great support to the emerging teams,” Ghising told The Rising Nepal.

“In addition, Asian Rugby is advocating for a reform in World Rugby's governance and budgeting system. We support the fair distribution of the budget and subsidies from World Rugby to its regional bodies and member unions, alongside the six major nations."

Asia supporting France

Ghising said that Asia Rugby was supporting the French candidate, Abdelatif Benazzi, in the election for the chairman of World Rugby. The election is taking place in Dublin, Ireland, on November 14.

“Except for the individual voting power of Japan, Asia has one. And the Asian region has decided to support the candidate from France in the election,” Ghising stressed.

Benazzi is one of the three candidates for the post. He has been seconded by South Africa while Australia’s Brett Robinson and Italy’s Andrea Rinaldo have been seconded by England and Ireland respectively.

As per Ghising, Asia was supporting Benazzi for his aim to develop rugby in countries other than the heavyweights.

“The alarm has been sounded, the boat is at risk of sinking,” Benazzi told AFP, adding, “One can have the impression that when the World Cup comes round, it (rugby) is a truly global sport. In fact, it still only concerns certain countries, that have been around for 100 years, and very few others emerge as contenders.”