And every time I came to Madras, for a Test match or the All-India Rugby Football Tournament whenever it was competed for on the Madras Gymkhana grounds, he’d have me trying to make sense of rugby for him, while I’d have him bring me up-to-date with Madras gossip, political and otherwise. To this day, India Coffee House, Madras, is to me associated with Rajan and South Indian rugby. For the last 20 years there’s been a sort of start-stop-start rugby revival in Madras after it had faded out in South India — Madras and the plantation districts — in the 1960s. The tournament evolved into the All-India in 1926 when the British Rugby Football Union presented it a handsome trophy. The locals proved themselves when the Chennai Cheetahs won the All-India in 2004 and 2006 and finished runners-up in 2007, 2008 and 2010 before vanishing from the Madras rugby scene.

Source: The Hindu February 12, 2018 07:30 UTC