Amidst circumstances, which force us to close our eyes and hope troubles for Sports India fly away sooner than later, there appears to be a glimmer of positive light at the end of the tunnel, all thanks to the apparent tactical shift in attitude of India Inc. and other non-state agents. Reacting to the recent developments, corporates like Bajaj Allianz, Shree Cements et al and other State governments like Punjab, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh et al, have assured financial help for Indian Hockey. While Sahara India Parivar, which is the official sponsor of India’s cricket, hockey, boxing and wrestling teams has taken the lead in this regard, other corporate houses are following suit. Hero Honda, Coca-Cola and Reebok have signed sponsorship deals for the Hockey World Cup 2010. Then there is L N Mittal’s Mittal Trust, which is contributing a substantial $10 million for the training and nurturing of 40 Indian athletes, including boxers and shooters. [It is the same body which also funded the overseas training camps of ace shooter Abhinav Bindra.] From Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), which has shown a keen interest in kabaddi, to conglomerate ITC, which is currently associated with the Sunfeast Open Women’s Tennis Tournament, the tide seems to be changing gradually in favour of the largely ignored sections of Sports India, a manifestation of which can be found in the manner in which major sponsors like Hero Honda and LG are slowly yet steadily moving over from just cricket to other sports. While PSUs like NMDC, ONGC, NTPC and NACIL have been for years organising tournaments and providing employment to athletes, even bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and singer Salma Agha are now providing solidarity for various sporting formats.
With the year 2009 Pitch–GroupM report forecasting the $19 billion Indian sports marketing business to grow at an annual rate of 25%, there is great hope and greater expectations of much more participation of business entities to encourage the growth of Sports India. But the truth is – much remains to be done to reach the levels of the US, where the captive sports marketing business is valued at $400 billion! The current state of affairs of Indian sports is therefore for now, a story of mixed chances, giving worries to various stakeholders involved.
And what about policy bottlenecks? Says B. K. Sinha, former Secretary, SAI to B&E, “Our sports policy is not bad but enough money is not being spent on sports and training of the athletes. Here, on an average, one coach trains 15-16 sportspersons, whereas in Europe and US, a coach is specially assigned to one athlete. Are we ready to spend so much?” At the same time, other sports should take a leaf from Indian cricket’s books, for over time, the influence of bureaucracy has been reduced to a minimum in Indian Cricket, something which is not found in other sporting formats.
The autonomous governing body of Indian cricket – BCCI, has also marketed itself well, unlike The All India Football Federation (AIFF) or the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), which are much lesser known names; no wonder cricket gets all the favours from the ad world! Much to the dismay of other sporting federations, since 2008, BCCI, India’s richest sports board, has donated $27 million to the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) to mobilise resources for sports other than cricket. It’s therefore also time that BCCI teaches NSDF and other related federations to promote sports, not merely as a good career, but as a good business proposition too! Of course, this challenge for NSDF can only be dealt with proper piggybacking of available media resources, after proper promotion to raise TRPs, using monetary resources (gained from BCCI, the Ministry of Sports and other entities like Rural Electric Corp., Power Corp. Of India, Oriental Bank and individuals like ex-cricketer like Kapil Dev), which annually exceeds $12 million! But forget promotions, for at present, a known body like the IHF even lacks any arrangement to telecast live anyof India’s international matches! As far the media community is concerned, it has a responsibility too, towards ensuring that Sports India gets up on its feet, as Rajpal Singh, Captain of the Indian Hockey Team, says, “Media should adopt a professional approach towards covering sports and every bit of information about games should be published on the basis of facts.” Even Viren Rasquinha, a former captain of Indian Hockey team and is currently the COO of Olympics Quest for Gold, strongly believes that Indian sports today, need stars and that can happen only with the help of media.
With the year 2009 Pitch–GroupM report forecasting the $19 billion Indian sports marketing business to grow at an annual rate of 25%, there is great hope and greater expectations of much more participation of business entities to encourage the growth of Sports India. But the truth is – much remains to be done to reach the levels of the US, where the captive sports marketing business is valued at $400 billion! The current state of affairs of Indian sports is therefore for now, a story of mixed chances, giving worries to various stakeholders involved.
And what about policy bottlenecks? Says B. K. Sinha, former Secretary, SAI to B&E, “Our sports policy is not bad but enough money is not being spent on sports and training of the athletes. Here, on an average, one coach trains 15-16 sportspersons, whereas in Europe and US, a coach is specially assigned to one athlete. Are we ready to spend so much?” At the same time, other sports should take a leaf from Indian cricket’s books, for over time, the influence of bureaucracy has been reduced to a minimum in Indian Cricket, something which is not found in other sporting formats.
The autonomous governing body of Indian cricket – BCCI, has also marketed itself well, unlike The All India Football Federation (AIFF) or the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), which are much lesser known names; no wonder cricket gets all the favours from the ad world! Much to the dismay of other sporting federations, since 2008, BCCI, India’s richest sports board, has donated $27 million to the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) to mobilise resources for sports other than cricket. It’s therefore also time that BCCI teaches NSDF and other related federations to promote sports, not merely as a good career, but as a good business proposition too! Of course, this challenge for NSDF can only be dealt with proper piggybacking of available media resources, after proper promotion to raise TRPs, using monetary resources (gained from BCCI, the Ministry of Sports and other entities like Rural Electric Corp., Power Corp. Of India, Oriental Bank and individuals like ex-cricketer like Kapil Dev), which annually exceeds $12 million! But forget promotions, for at present, a known body like the IHF even lacks any arrangement to telecast live anyof India’s international matches! As far the media community is concerned, it has a responsibility too, towards ensuring that Sports India gets up on its feet, as Rajpal Singh, Captain of the Indian Hockey Team, says, “Media should adopt a professional approach towards covering sports and every bit of information about games should be published on the basis of facts.” Even Viren Rasquinha, a former captain of Indian Hockey team and is currently the COO of Olympics Quest for Gold, strongly believes that Indian sports today, need stars and that can happen only with the help of media.
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