The country's top former handball player and renowned sports administrator Roopkumar alias Paplu Naidu who hails from Nagpur has become the co-owner of Garvit Gujarat franchise for the Premier Handball League slated to be held next year.
The Gujarat team will be among the six franchise teams that will compete in the first season of the league. This team is owned by 'Garvit Sports Private Limited' ie GSPL.
Paplu Naidu wants to bring global standards to Indian handball. He himself has been an international handball player and Indian captain and is a Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Award winner. He was part of the Indian team at the 1979 Asian Championship in China as well as the country's first international appearance at the 1982 Asian Games and later as a visionary administrator.
According to him, handball is the second-fastest sport in the world and has been a regular Olympic event. It has been more than 50 years since it came to India. This time at the Olympics, France won the men's and women's gold medals, while Denmark and Spain won the men's silver and bronze medals respectively, but India is yet to qualify for the Olympics. That is why with the aim of making Indian handball world class, PHL i.e. has been started. For their much-awaited inaugural edition, PHL has announced 'Garvit Gujarat' as their first ever franchise team.