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TITLE Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

YEAR February, 2014

Public and Social Policies Management (PSPM) Group, YES BANK AUTHORS Media, Arts, Luxury & Sports Banking Group, YES BANK Guest Contributors

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by photo, photoprint, COPYRIGHT microfilm or any other means without the written permission of YES BANK Ltd. & ASSOCHAM.

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YES BANK Ltd. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Registered and Head Office D. S. Rawat 9th Floor, Nehru Centre, Secretary General Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, - 400 018 5, Sardar Patel Marg Tel : +91 22 6669 9000 New - 110021 Fax : +91 22 2497 4088 CONTACTS Email : [email protected] Tel : +91 11 4655 0555 Fax : +91 11 2301 7008/9 Northern Regional Office Email : [email protected] 48, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri Website : www.assocham.org – 110 021 Tel : +91 11 6656 9000 Email : [email protected] Website : www.yesbank.in

FOREWORD

The importance of sports in harnessing the power of the youth towards Nation building and economic development has been evident ever since the 1896 – this has been firmly established during subsequent international sporting events across the world. Globally, there is growing convergence between sports and entertainment, as both rise to the challenges of new digital platforms and technologies. Sports and entertainment events are increasingly being staged together to enhance overall viewing, engagement with fans and a more intensive experience. The last few years have seen a surge in development of sports infrastructure and facilities in India and although at a nascent stage, the Indian sports industry presents substantial opportunities. Globally, sport is a major contributor to GDPs of developed and developing nations. India's Sports sector has the potential to grow at a CAGR of 5%, from USD1.53 bn in 2011 to USD1.89 bn in 2015 and is poised to play a larger role in providing employment and ensuring inclusive growth. With the advent of corporate support and successful hosting of events such as the Commonwealth Games, Indian (IPL), (HIL), Formula 1, Indian League and the proposed football, tennis and wrestling leagues, it is evident that there are huge commercial opportunities in the Indian sports industry. However, there are several larger aspects related to the management of sports in India that need addressing in a multi-pronged manner. Even as discussions are underway for granting industry status to sports and bringing in management proficiency at grass root levels to nurture talent, the sector needs holistic, comprehensive policies, with buy in at district administration level. Here, a collaborative community approach, through a social equity model, accompanied by appropriate incentives, can help encourage sports talent. ASSOCHAM recognizes the tremendous potential in the field of sports and has institutionalized a National Council for Young India, Sports and Sports Infrastructure to champion knowledge, best practices and investments for developing sports infrastructure, skill development and training in order to achieve excellence in sports. While the current National Sports Development Bill focuses on developing India as a sports powerhouse, beginning with good Governance, there is an inherent need for a single nodal agency with a board of Governors from various sports disciplines to direct implementable actions for good governance. Creating world class sports infrastructure requires policy support, local buy in, large investments, global best practices and technical knowledge. Given these challenges, Public Private Partnerships (PPP's) can lead the way for developing sustainable sports infrastructure, with the participation of private sector. YES BANK and ASSOCHAM are jointly organising the National Conference on Sports and Sports Infrastructure to discuss the outlook of the evolving Indian Sports industry. On this occasion, I am pleased to present the ASSOCHAM – YES BANK knowledge report 'Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap' that outlines a roadmap for transforming the sports sector through a comprehensive development policy with active private sector engagement. I am confident that the contents of the knowledge report will provide important insights to policy makers in achieving the transformational vision set forth for growth and development of the sports sector and help actualize our Olympic dream. Thank you. Sincerely,

Rana Kapoor President, ASSOCHAM Managing Director and CEO,

MESSAGE

ASSOCHAM has always strived to remain ahead of the curve in terms of what is pertinent to its stakeholders as well as for the country. As a leading Apex chamber, ASSOCHAM has always tried to highlight issues that hinder progress through a consensual multi-stakeholder based dialogue to identify the way forward.

It is with this pedigree that ASSOCHAM has again taken a leadership role in formulating a National Sports Council to address the broad issues of capacity and skill enhancement, governance and transparency, and the values and inclusiveness of sports. The Council has representation from a diverse set of participants in the Sports economy – administrators, sportsmen, sponsors, the Government, well-wishers and others.

The issue of Governance in the running of professional sports in India is of extreme topical importance. The Council aims to build a consensus on the level of transparency necessary in the administration of different professional sports to not only bring about an equitable playing-field but also focus the administrative bodies on achieving success in their respective sports. Governance and accountability is also of paramount importance in bringing private funding into sports. This level of transparency is necessary to ensure a sustainable level of corporate interest to create a proper eco-system whereby the needs of sportsmen and fans are met. The ASSOCHAM Sports Council has represented to the Government of India and the Ministry of Sports on suggested inclusions in the draft Sports Bill after taking the observations of its members, on specific areas of governance and transparency.

The professionalism of the administration of sports will allow for the appropriate allocation of capital, and if not at least the identification of areas which should be considered for further investment. It is not possible for the Country to achieve success in sports without appropriate facilities for our sportsmen and sportswomen, as well as world-class training. The Council aims to work towards the identification of a hundred Olympic medalists for the short term and the requisite funding that may be necessary for them to achieve success.

The values gained from sports are not only confined to our professionals, every child should have the opportunity to gain from the values that playing sports inculcates. It is also the objective of the Council to promote sports in schools so that it is relevant in our current curriculum, all while striving to facilitate the use of public infrastructure for our youth to play sports.

It gives me immense pleasure to Chair this Council for the year 2013-14 and hope that we will be able to make substantial progress in our objectives.

Nikhil Sawhney Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Sports Council

MESSAGE

ASSOCHAM is organizing the National Council on Sports & Sports Infrastructure on Monday, 10th February, 2014 in New Delhi with the objective of promoting Sports and to develop a mechanism to involve private sector for Sports development.

We are happy to note that the Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs has recommended the inclusion of Sports as a part of the CSR Activity under the New Companies Act, 2013.

While ASSOCHAM would like to bring more professionalism and accountability in the Sporting arena, we have urged the concerned Ministries to bring all the National Sports Federation and Associations under the RTI as envisaged in the Draft National Sports Development Bill, 2013.

I convey my good wishes for the success of this ASSOCHAM's National Conference on Sports & Sports Infrastructure and thank all the stakeholders for their participation and their guidance.

I also do congratulate the YES BANK and ASSOCHAM Team for preparing this meaningful Report on the subject, which will certainly help the Government and other important stakeholders in preparing the future roadmap.

D.S. Rawat Secretary General

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction: Sports as a Social Enabler...... 01

2. Overview of Sports Industry...... 05

2.1 A Global Perspective...... 06 2.2 The India Chapter...... 09 2.3 The Business of Sports in India ...... 10

3. Building Social Fabric through Engagement in Sports ...... 17

3.1 The Culture and Policy Perspective ...... 18 3.2 Redefining the Sports Policy ...... 20 3.3 Role of Education in Sports ...... 21

4. Enabling India to Becoming a Sports Superpower ...... 23

4.1 PPP as an Enabler in Sports Infrastructure ...... 25 4.2 Sustainability through Multi-party Stakeholders ...... 26

5. Guest Contributors: Views from the Field ...... 29

Is India Losing Steam after Boxing Laurels? Challenges and Opportunities Sandeep Jajodia ...... 30

Building the Future of our Communities through Sports Anurag Thakur ...... 32

Charting India's Return to Glory in Hockey Dr. Narinder Batra ...... 34

The State of Sports Governance in India Lessons from Cricket Ayaz Memon ...... 35

Five Things that can help Improve Sports in India Shamya Dasgupta ...... 38

Vision Olympics 2020: Inculcating a Sporting Culture among the Youth Manisha Malhotra ...... 41 TABLE OF CONTENTS

'My Olympic Journey': Steps to Encourage and Popularizing Saina Nehwal ...... 43

The Future of Indian Badminton Prakash Padukone ...... 45

Raising the Popularity of Rishi Narain ...... 47

Solving the Great Indian Football Jigsaw: The Way Forward Bhaichung Bhutia ...... 49

Creating a Mark on the International Football Map: India's 5 year plan Sunil Chhetri ...... 51

Sustainable Domestic Leagues in Indian Football Parth Jindal ...... 53 Nandan Piramal ...... 56

Grassroots Development in Indian Football Priti Srivastava ...... 58

Taking Football to Schools: Community Development, Administrative Hurdles and Winning Formula Kishore Gam Taid ...... 60

Sports Marketing: Changing the Game Ashish Chaddha ...... 62

Sports Marketing: Return on Investment Lokesh Sharma ...... 64

Leadership in Strategic Human Resource Management Prof. Vivek Pandey ...... 66

Sports Infrastructure as the Key Driver for Growth in Sports Hiren Pandit ...... 70

Changing Dynamics in Sports Broadcast in India Prasanna Krishnan ...... 72

6. Roadmap for Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure ...... 75 1. Introduction: Sports as a Social Enabler 1 Introduction: Sports as a Social Enabler

The knowledge report focuses on the socio-economic impact of sports and the necessity of promoting the 'sporting culture' within the education system, making it a feasible career option for those inclined towards sports. Looking at critical issues that need a multi- stakeholder approach, we look at the solutions permeating from a conducive policy environment, backed by a strong and innovative institutional structure.

Sports and games have historically played a significant role in development of personality traits and qualities like discipline, tolerance and leadership amongst the youth. With adequate support, planning and focused implementation, immense potential of the India's youth can be gainfully channelized Considering that 50% through sporting activities. The realization of their of our population is true potential will not only build future character, but is a conduit of national integration. More importantly, below 25 years of age, our top sportsmen come from diverse parts of the there is a strong country, many with limited sports infrastructure, thus prospect of developing indicating huge unexplored potential. India as a sports The equality and inclusiveness of sports surpasses superpower. any other nation building activity. However, although India has an abundant resource of sportspersons blessed with natural talent, we have not been able to capitalize on this dividend.

Nearly Attracting 155 sports are 25 High players, played in India Impact Sports viewers and sponsors

02 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap When considering the stature of an athlete or for that matter any person, I set great store in certain qualities which I believe to be essential in addition to skill. They are that the person conducts his or her life with dignity, with integrity, courage, and perhaps most of all, with modesty. These virtues are totally compatible with pride, ambition, and competitiveness ~ Don Bradman

……our top sportsmen come from diverse parts of the country, many with limited sports infrastructure, indicating at the huge unexplored potential.

31 States & Union SPORTSPERSONS FROM ONLY 18 STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES HAVE MANAGED Territories in in India TO BAG ONE OR MORE MEDALS.

Source: National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

To focus on Sports as a sunrise sector, India needs to deliberate on multiple parameters like inculcating sports as an academic subject, shortage of trained manpower and specialists, skill gaps, sports infrastructure and sports medicine, but most importantly, building a sports culture in the society. While much has advanced in terms of children choosing cricket as a career option, with recent successes in the Olympics and other sports like tennis and badminton adding to the plate, the sector employs a variety of experts from other sectors like medicine, psychology, management.

03 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

2. Overview of Sports Industry 2 Overview of Sports Industry

2.1 A Global Perspective

Even as we are building a path towards promoting sports as a nation building activity, it is imperative to emphasize that sports is a multi-billion dollar industry which can impact India's economic growth, if promoted in a sustained and focused manner.

CAGR of 3.7% Global revenues of USD 145.3 Global sports Bn revenues valued at USD 121.4 Bn

2010 2015

Global Sports Revenues 2006-2015 Component 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Global 107,516 111,934 120,760 112,489 121,391 118,690 129,929 130,164 146,469 145,341 Revenues (USD) % Change 12.1 4.1 7.9 -6.8 7.9 -2.2 9.5 0.2 12.5 -0.8

Source: Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP, Wilkofsky Gruen Associates

The global attractiveness of major sporting events is underlined by their ongoing and generally successful expansion around the world over the last 20 years. The wave of new stadiums and large sports infrastructure around the globe, growing size of television contracts and the continued proliferation of sports advertising augur well for an industry that continues to soar, even as the global economy climbs out of recession

üFor India to grab the opportunity provided by this burgeoning sector, the sector needs to be taken out of the amusement and entertainment category and given an industry status as the first step.

06 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap üThe Sports Sector is plagued by the lack of infrastructure. Policy impetus enabling better maintenance and high quality infrastructure construction is the need of the day.

üIt is the viability of infrastructure that to a large extent affects the sustainability of the project that will bring in meaningful private participation. Returns Vs Welfare

Public Sector Private Sector Society - Frame progressive, holistic - Give equal emphasis on the - Treat sports as a viable career policies aimed at overall 'welfare' aspect, help the option, not merely a development rather than sporting community through recreational activity limiting itself to infrastructural training support, sponsorships, - Encourage, support, motivate and administrative support management, advisory, logistical support etc.

As per a recent PwC analysis, the revenues of the Sports Industry grew at a CAGR of 3.7% between 2011 and 2014. However, growth of the sports sector is seriously under pressure from economic slowdown. Global Sports Revenue Split: India Scorecard

I. Gate Receipts

It is interesting to note that in North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa); gate revenues are the largest contributor to total revenues. We believe that in the years to come, gate receipts will play a larger role in the Indian sporting revenue landscape as well. Larger format and popular events are usually sold out – thereby restricting gate receipts due to capacity constraints. The addition of new capacity and upgradation of existing facilities will increase gate revenues in the years to come.

Growth in gate revenues will also be supported by shorter an exciting format of sports. These formats would attract a new demographic profile such as the youth aged 18-25 as well as female audiences while gaining popularity in new territories. Shorter format games such as the Rugby Sevens have been commercially successful in African countries such as Namibia and Kenya.

In the Indian context, while a number of leagues for different sports such as Hockey and Motorsports are still at a nascent stage of development; to capitalize on the growing popularity of football in the country, the '' - a joint initiative of IMG Reliance and is all set to launch early next year

07 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap II. Sponsorships

Sponsorship is the largest contributor to revenues within the Asia Pacific region (43.2%). Within the Indian context - sponsorship revenues constitute a substantially higher percentage of total revenues. Increasing spectators and new platforms of content exploitation have led to an increasing number of brands sponsoring sporting events as part of their marketing mix and to forge a deeper emotional connect with the consumers.

Global Sports Market by Component (USD Mn) 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Gate Revenues 37,056 38,387 39,998 38,873 39,570 39,043 40,613 41,317 43,544 44,746 Media Rights 24,281 23,861 27,005 24,563 29,225 26,945 32,141 30,062 37,801 35,247 Sponsorships 26,749 29,273 32,494 31,467 34,972 35,132 39,173 40,236 45,559 45,281 Merchandising 19,430 20,413 21,263 17,586 17,624 17,570 18,002 18,549 19,565 20,067

Source: Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP, Wilkofsky Gruen Associates

Airtel became the title sponsor for the first F1 Indian Grand Prix at a sponsorship of price of ` 34 crore (Approx. USD 6.2 Mn at current exchange rates) for 5 years with the rationale of 'the growing sports market in India and the need to connect with younger customers', while IMG Reliance acquired commercial rights for Indian football from AIFF for 15 years for a sum of ` 700 crore (Approx. USD 127 Mn at current exchange rates) including media, sponsorship and advertising, licensing and merchandising.

In the west however, Adidas has a seven-year sponsorship deal with FIFA for USD 315 Mn. This is one of numerous deals in the USD 100 Mn plus category. We observe, a clear uptrend in Indian sponsorship revenues and the enormous potential that lies ahead for Indian Sports in the times to come.

III. Media Rights

While revenues from Media Rights in the Asia Pacific region are expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.4%, the top line growth masks large year-on-year swings - a reflection of the impact of major events such as the F1 Grand Prix, World Cup amongst others. As this cyclicality in revenues continues, the most powerful and consistent force that drives the media rights market is the dramatic advancement of technology and distribution platforms with the rise of social media as a marketing strategy and a tool to engage with the consumer

In the Indian context, while the saw Multi Screen Media, its official telecast partner signed a 10-year deal for nearly ` 8,200 crore; Times Group, on the other hand, bagged the global Internet, mobile and audio rights, along with television rights in specific territories outside India for 4 years for nearly ` 261.6 crore. In comparison, Star bagged the broadcasting rights for all international and domestic cricket matches for ` 3,851 crore for a period of 6 years.

08 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 2.2 The India Chapter

The past few years have seen a spurt in the development of sports infrastructure and facilities in The Indian India. With the advent of big money and successful opportunities are vast hosting of events such as the Commonwealth Games 2010, ICC World Cup 2011, the IPL, the first ever F1 and strewn across the Indian Grand Prix in 2011 and the recently concluded entire sporting chain & Indian Badminton League, there are enormous commercially exploitable opportunities present in the will lie in creating Indian Sports industry. sporting leagues,

Although at a nascent stage, the Indian sports talent management, industry presents substantial opportunities for every sports training, and stakeholder in the sporting eco-system. The fact that creating infrastructure sport till now has not been a priority sector in India is evident from the meager budget allocation of 0.14% via the PPP route. in the country's 2013-2014 budget. Inadequate financial support from the Government has constrained the creation & maintenance of Sports infrastructure in India.

An area such as sports infrastructure requires policy support, local buy-ins, large investments and technical knowledge. Given these challenges, Public Private Partnerships (PPP's) have become the order of the day for the development of sustainable sporting infrastructure and have been successfully applied to the development of several sporting assets across the globe. With the advent of the league format, the business of sports has also become about creating valuable media and entertainment properties. It is this change in the outlook that has started attracting private interest in Indian sports. The opportunities are vast and strewn across the entire sporting chain & will lie in creating sporting leagues, talent management, sports training, and creating infrastructure via the PPP route.

The successful hosting of the F1 Indian Grand Prix & Commonwealth Games have paved the way for more international sporting events to be held in the country. India can use these mega events to invite potential investors to witness its mettle for execution, before they make their investment decisions. It is an opportunity to develop and showcase our infrastructure, our organizational ability and our willingness to be a part of the global sporting village.

üIn India, the business of sports will grow at a CAGR of 5% from USD 1.53 Bn in 2011 to USD 1.89 Bn in 2015.

üAccording to a recent study, India is expected to witness a significant surge in TV advertising and sponsorship income in the coming years, making it the second-best revenue generator after Brazil, among the BRIC countries.

09 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap üThough India would account for a mere 1.3% of the worldwide sporting revenues, the rate of growth is expected to be much higher than the global CAGR of 3.7% till 2015. 2.3 The Business of Sports in India (Rakesh Jariwala, Partner EY)

Sports have always been fundamental to our culture since the Vedic times. While cricket has always been a favourite sport in the country, it was only after winning the World Cup in 1983 did cricket gain precedence and mass fan following. Hockey on the other hand, has been popular in India since pre-independence times and with the announcement of the Indian Hockey League, has been recently resurrected.

Apart from hockey and cricket, there is no denying that there are several other sports like soccer, tennis, boxing, badminton, racing, golf, etc. are slowly gaining importance in the country and have also started doing exceptionally well. With the emergence of national and international sports leagues and India's participation in these leagues being duly noted, India's standing in the international sports scenario has also significantly improved. Sports leagues have also proven to be massive sources of revenue thereby greatly increasing the overall size of the industry. While there is already a highly successful Indian cricket league that has been established, there are other up-and-coming sports leagues of which the establishment is underway. With increased investments in sports and related activities, sports will slowly start comprising of a higher percentage of viewership and revenue share.

The Evolution of Sports in India

The pre-independence era saw a more unorganized dimension to sports as compared to today. Most of the sports we watch today like badminton, cricket, hockey, polo, football, etc existed in slightly primitive forms. However, post independence the same sports were modernized and are being played in the country as anywhere else in the world. One of the biggest milestones for Indian sports post-independence was when the IX were hosted in New Delhi in 1982. This led to a boost in sports facilities and infrastructure for the capital city. Other cities in the country have also followed suit and there are similar facilities being developed. India has hosted a series of sports events including the Asian Games, the 1987 and 1996 , the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the and the first Indian Grand Prix in 2011.

Cricket occupies the lion's share of sports viewing and advertisement revenues in India. Around 90% of the advertisement money targeted at sports goes to cricket. However, this trend is changing. Early success is starting to come by in non-cricket sports: India has achieved its best ever performance in recent multi-sport events such as the London Olympics 2012, Commonwealth Games 2010 and Asian Games 2010. The corporate world is taking note. Non-cricketing events are getting increased sponsorships and advertising

10 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap revenues, even though cricket continues to be the favourite among marketers. Football, hockey, golf etc. are slowly making their presence felt. The viewership of these sports is rising, which is attracting the private sector as well as foreign clubs and associations, to tap into their growth potential.

Games Favoured by Brands for their Marketing Campaigns 100%

80% 86%

60%

40% 45%

20% 28% 27% 26% 21% 17% 9% 9% 5% 0% Cricket Football Hockey Golf Marathons Tennis Badminton Indigenous Polo Others sport

Corporates and foreign clubs/associations are entering long-term deals for development and monetization of sports other than cricket. Several sports associations have launched/planning to launch IPL-styled franchisee-based leagues to boost the growth of respective sport in the countr y. Foreign sports associations such as FédérationInternationale de Football Association (FIFA), National Basketball Association (NBA), European PGA Tour, are also working for development of respective sports in India.

The Business of Sports in India

The hugely popular Indian Premier League (IPL) has shown tremendous success since its conception. The success of this league has inspired other less popular sports in India to take up this particular format. For example, India successfully managed to host the Hockey India League earlier in 2013. An IPL-style football league is also expected to take off this year. The Indian Badminton League (IBL) was launched in 2013 as a franchise league by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) which was a huge success in its debut season and is expected to grow further and attract more advertisers in the upcoming seasons. There are other sports such as volleyball, basketball, tennis, and motor sports which are also contemplating launching similar leagues in the country. One of the major positives of this league format is that it incorporates sports people from all spheres – international, national, and local. This way, even the local state players get a chance to be a part of a league and use it as a stepping stone to their respective careers.

Investments in sports by the private sector earlier formed part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, IPL has spurred commercial interest in companies to monetize sports other than cricket through a sustainable model. In 2010, Reliance, a large industrial conglomerate, partnered with IMG, an international sports management company, to promote various sports such as basketball, football, tennis and golf from

11 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap grassroots level. For instance, IMG-Reliance has signed a 30-year deal with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) to develop basketball from grassroots to a professional league. Mahindra & Mahindra has also partnered with the BFI and the US-based National Basketball Association (NBA) for a recreational league in India. As these initiatives begin to demonstrate results, it is expected to improve overall commercial value of these sports in India. There however exists a chicken and egg situation wherein the developer may be willing to invest capital but no visible revenue streams. Indian as well as foreign leagues see immense possibilities of scaling up for popularising games other than but shortage of value managers who can provide certainty to developers on a long term basis are missing.

The IPL has successfully e s t a b l i s h e d t w o m a i n Revenue Distribution of IPL Franchises revenue streams for the franchises – traditional and 3% 1% non-traditional. Traditional 6% revenue streams include revenues attained purely 15% 38% through sponsorships and t i c k e t s a l e s , w h i c h 15% constitutes the bulk of the total franchise revenue pie. 22% The non-traditional revenue streams comprise of the Central broadcasting Team sponsorship Central sponsorship Gate receipts In-stadia advertising Merchandise sales revenues that are generated Prize money through merchandising and other franchise related activities. Social media also plays a huge role in popularizing franchises during the season and otherwise. The main challenge that most sports franchises face is monetizing this digital fan base. However, some IPL franchises have been able to successfully monetize a considerable chunk of their digital fan base by introducing fan clubs which charge a one- time fee to sign up. These fan clubs offer several perks to their members which are not only valid throughout the season but throughout the year as well. This system has worked very well for the franchises and has even become best case practices that other franchises are looking to adopt.

Sports Infrastructure

Sports being a State subject in India, it is time State Governments begin looking at developing sports infrastructure with a fresh perspective. Firstly, it should be ensured that utilization rate for each of the sports complexes and stadia in the State reach at least 75%throughout the year. This would require shift in policies, especially the building bye- laws in regard to allowing non-sports activities in a sports facility. This would also ensure that due diligence is carried out in identifying suitable sites for building such infrastructure.

12 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Secondly, sports infrastructure development in urban areas should be associated with tying in development of a sports facility in adjoining rural areas to ensure development is not focused around a few centres. State Governments need to plan availability of infrastructure to maximum communities and citizens. Further, talent scouts must be engaged in these facilities to spot and identify talent. Such individuals must be then encouraged and put through an elite training program at best-in class infrastructure developed at a few key locations in the State or even the centre.

ü26-49% üMulti-purpose ü51-74% (single) facility with shareholding not üShares and minimum area for more than 26%) Interest free loan for only sports and

concessional value of üBuy shareholding s t minimum sports e i n land/building (bidding on minimum t i e

days for other t n

m period) E

n üRepresented by State

r üLimits on sports e e

Government, olympic üExpertise in design, t v

user fee a o association (India + v development, i r G

State) and foreign üConditional operation or P sports agency development maintenance (non-pvt.) (urban:rural = 1:10 üWide representation in Board of Directors

Finally, to implement the above suggestions, State Governments should promote setting up of companies with a special purpose of developing sports. These special purpose vehicles, with participation from Government as well as private sector entities, will manage the multi purpose aspect for optimum utilization of sports infrastructure. At the same time, these vehicles shall view sports in the State from a holistic perspective and provide appropriate infrastructure level for various categories of users. In regard to the Central Government's support, steps taken in this direction by the State Governments should feature among the criteria for Central Government to award rights to host India's National Games.

13 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Case Study – The Staples Center, Los Angeles

The Staples Center, one of the The Staples Center - Key facts world's premier sports and Year of construction 1999 entertainment venue, is home to four US professional sports Construction cost Approximately USD 400 Mn franchises – two from the The (mainly privately financed, USD National Basketball Association 70 Mn from public subsidies) (NBA, The LA Lakers and the LA Area 950,000 sq. feet (~88,000 m2) Clippers), one from the National Seating capacity Approximately 20,000 Hockey League (the LA Kings) and one from the Women's NBA Ownership Private (owned and operated by the L.A. Arena Company and (The LA Sparks). The Staples Anschutz Entertainment Group) Center hosts over 250 events and nearly 4 million visitors a year. The stadium has been named as "Arena of the Year" by Pollstar Magazine twice and nominated each year since opening.

The stadium has played a crucial role in revitalizing the downtown area of Los Angeles when the cities' professional football teams, The National Football League's (NFL) Raiders and Rams moved from Los Angeles to other cities.

Benefits to the City:

üAnnual revenue from lease value of the Staples Center site üTaxes from ticket sales üShare of parking revenues üProperty taxes obtained from the operation of the Staples Center üIncremental sales taxes, business license taxes and utility taxes üLocal employment üRevitalization of city's sports infrastructure

Stadium Monetization:

üTicket sales: The stadium operates for over 250 days in a year, providing regular income stream from ticket sales. The resident four professional leagues ensure full utilization of stadium capacity. In addition, the multi-purpose nature of the stadium ensures that the facility can be used for other sports such as boxing and wrestling. üNaming rights: Office-supply company Staples, Inc. purchased the naming rights for USD 116 Mn for 20 years (later extended till perpetuity).

14 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap üSponsorship rights: The stadium has corporate sponsorship partners such the American Express, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, Panasonic, Verizon and Wells Fargo.

üEntertainment use: The stadium has hosted several high-profile celebrity concerts, award ceremonies and family shows.

üOthers: Includes revenue streams such as luxury seating facilities (premium lounges and club seats) and parking space.

Tax and Regulatory Perspective:

Indian tax and regulatory scenario for business of sports is not most conducive for growth of sports and sports infrastructure. While the regulations provide discretion to the authorities to provide incentives and exceptions to the sports events, such incentives and exemptions are far and few: Firstly, the parameters are not very well defined coupled with administrative hassles one had to go through to land the incentives and exemption. Secondly, with the activist movement, there is a certain element of scepticism and conservatism that precludes grant of incentives/ exemption. Last and perhaps the most damaging aspect is challenge to and withdrawal of incentives/ exemption granted to the sports event on account of agitation or an activist movement. All these elements result in great uncertainly and the promoter of the event ends up taking a significant risk on the event in most cases.

Where the event is not tax exempt, there is a multitude of taxes that apply right from withholding taxes to sales tax, service tax, entertainment tax, state taxes, and so on, and often, the same transaction is subjected to multiple tax levies which increases the cost substantially. Often, a long litigation pursues either to defend the tax position taken or to secure refund of taxes paid.

It is imperative that a fair and transparent mechanism based on active consultation is evolved to firstly define the kind of events that will qualify for incentive benefits/ exemption. The approach could be based on 'draft for public comments' where business forums, sports bodies and other stakeholders can actively contribute towards the legislative framework.

15 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

3. Building Social Fabric through Engagement in Sports Building Social Fabric through 3 Engagement in Sports

Engagement of society through sports is amply proven through popular games like cricket and football. Cricket fever grips the Indian subcontinent during every big tournament. Although street cricket is common, a lot of talent remains untapped. It is only possible to promote the sports culture through affordable, common and grass-root sports.

A focused approach is required to increase sporting culture across segments of the society and categories of sports, so that they are within the economic means of the population and are sustainable.

Luxury Category: Golf, F1, Polo, Shooting

Mid Category: Cricket, Football, Table Tennis, Tennis, Badminton, Swimming

Grassroot Sports: Kho-Kho, Swimming, Football, Throwball, Cricket

3.1 The Culture and Policy Perspective

Interestingly, the need for meaningful engagement in sports is not only a challenge in rural India, but also a growing worry among urban societies. With little emphasis on seeking talent or training and exercise at home or school and with the advent of technology, children have increasingly resorted to indoor games, taking them away from their natural surroundings.

Sports as a culture needs widespread acceptance and not be viewed only as a lifestyle or leisure oriented engagement. This is only possible if the activity offers long-term career and livelihood opportunities. Sports are one of the few socially inclusive agendas that can provide maximum engagement across the entire economic strata of the society with minimal investment.

The Government needs to work towards putting the right systems in place so sports are made mandatory as a part of formal and informal education systems. Basic training should

18 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap be provided at schools and trained üUnless the local community understands the c o a ch e s s h o u l d b e h i r e d emphasis on sports and has a stake in the c o m p u l s o r i l y. T h e c e n t r a l infrastructure or the initiative, no amount of Government has taken cognizance investment can help the sports culture grow. of these requirements, and the Ministry has prepared a concept üApart from one time investment in note on 'Identifying & Nurturing infrastructure development, it is imperative to Sports Talent'. The paper seeks to have sustainable models to also address bring out the need for addressing issues like maintenance, coaching and fundamental weaknesses of the exposure mechanism for talents discovered. sporting sector such as: upgrading the skills of our sports persons üSports in a bigger sense will promote multi- through better coaching; sports faceted character building and thus address medicine facilities and better strengthening of the social fabric of the support ser vices; enhanced society. Promotion of sports activity thus participation in competitions of a needs to be independent of political influence international standards both in and preferably under the aegis of retired India as well as overseas; sports personalities and eminent citizens of developing a strong bench the society. strength; making sports a rewarding career option; and enhancing investment in the sector.

The Concept Note also seeks to explore the possibilities of increased Strengthening Social Fabric: private sector involvement and the üDeveloping Qualities of Good methods by which sports can Citizenship and Community Services become a significant business üReinforcing Volunteerism in Youth opportunity. It sets up specific goals rd üEngaging Rural Youth in Nation and milestones such as 3 position in Building Activities the overall medals tally in the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow Encouraging Adventure Activities 2014, with a medal tally of 125 üCreate International Perspective medals; 5th position in Incheon Asian among Youth Games 2014 with a medals tally of üBuilding Concensus to promote 75 medals; Ranking among the top adventure sports across society twenty in medals tally with 20 through Participation medals in 2016 Rio Olympics; 2nd position in Commonwealth Games 2018; Maintaining 5th position in Asian Games 2019; and getting into the list of first ten sporting nations in Olympics 2020 with a medals tally of not less than 25-30, with at least five gold medals.

19 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 3.2 Redefining the Sports Policy

Defining the role of grass-root level stakeholders and moving from State to Multiple Agency Implementation Mode

As per the Constitutional provisions, Sports & Physical Education are a State subject. The development of sports had been conceived originally as an activity that would require a broad centralized direction along with the freedom and given to individual States to decide the course of their individual sports policy.

Though financial assistance by the Central Government in the form of funds and grants towards Sports development has been steadily flowing in, they have not been channelized into result-oriented implementation. Now that the Sports personalities have successfully taken India to the international platform, we should pitch in for better fund utilization and dedicated focus on results. This requires guidance and monitoring by Central Government towards implementation of sports policies through possible amendments in the existing Constitutional set up. Besides appropriate Constitutional Review, sports development in India requires a grass root development approach with active development and a clearly defined institutional framework with a separate set of roles and responsibilities.

Lack of accountability plagues most sports authorities / associations

Reduction in the number of open spaces in urban needs to be addressed

India still lacks a Comprehensive Sports Bill

While past performance, sports climate and host-effect are factors endemic to a region, population and per capita income are factors which the States can work around through appropriate policy measures

Apart from some States like and , PPP for infrastructure development has still not been integrated into the sports policy of most States

The comprehensive National Sports Policy gives out the sports development matrix. While the functions of institutions such as Sports Authority of India, Indian Olympic Association is easily understood, the role of other stakeholders in the matrix such as Rural NGOs and Panchayati Raj Institutions needs to be clearly etched out and a separate section detailing the roles of these stakeholders should be incorporated in the draft policy.

20 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 3.3 Role of Education in Sports

Mechanism to Ensure Quality Sports Training in Schools

üThe comprehensive sports policy highlights that only 43% of the schools have access to proper play fields. However, we find that between 1978 and 2002, access to playfields has actually gone down by 7% in primary, 9% in upper primary and 5% in secondary and high secondary schools.

üTo overcome this, the sports policy calls for physical education and sports to be made a mandatory part of the curriculum up to higher secondary level.

üThe evaluation scheme in case of the physical education should be made more stringent with a system of external examination and evaluative practices soundly ingrained in the system to strengthen the implementation mechanism, and maintain quality standards in training and development of talent as well as engaging the civil society.

Market Research in Sports & Allied Subjects

Another area that needs emphasis for inclusion in the sports policy is the development of sports research, especially towards talent development and sports medicine. A policy towards social acceptance can be housed under a separate wing in the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, with representation from other relevant ministries like Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of HRD amongst others.

There is a need to assess the sports infrastructure in individual States for different sports and identification of the existing gaps and centralized database of existing talent in various sports at the National, State and Zonal level. Such a study should be carried out at regular intervals to gauge the progress of infrastructure development.

Enhanced Emphasis on Sports and Adventure Tourism

The National Sports Policy 2001 lays emphasis on the promotion of sports tourism and innovative resource mobilization efforts for sports, especially from corporate houses, through an appropriate package of fiscal incentives. The comprehensive DRAFT National Sports Policy, 2007 adds to this and recognizes the importance of tourism as an economic spin - off in the development of sports in the country and leveraging sports for National Economic Development by encouraging sports tourism, both through participation and viewership, including adventure sports in the country, in close association with State Governments, Tour Operators and NGOs promoting adventure sports such as rock climbing, rafting, skiing, paragliding, rappelling, trekking, sea exploration, scuba diving, snorkeling amongst others.

However, the draft policy does not provide a specific roadmap for developing sports tourism within the country. The incentives provided for promoting sports tourism may be

21 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap adapted individually to States, but some broad guidelines / examples from other countries' success stories in promoting sports tourism should be incorporated in the draft policy (as has been done by providing the examples of Cuba and China to show how much India is lagging behind in terms of Sports Development) to give it a more holistic view and clearly define the expectations from the States as well as the Nation. Convergence in the vision plans of Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs would also provide further insights into promoting sports and adventure tourism in the country teeming with geographical diversity.

The current Sports Development Bill focuses on developing India as a sports powerhouse, beginning with good governance in the sector through a Sports election commission and transparent rules of membership in sports committees and federations. However, as the Bill does not clearly authorize Central Government as a governing body, it often leaves the sector at the mercy of local federations and clubs, which are at times unable to grasp the bigger picture. Also, creation of multiple nodal agencies like Government accreditation body in addition to National Olympic Committee and the International Sports Federation will only create confusion in the system. The need is for one single Nodal Agency with a Board of Governors, from various sport disciplines which can advice provide an action plan to federations for implementation of good governance.

The bill effectively needs to bring the focus back on:

üEncouraging Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for Infrastructure Development & Talent Grooming

üIndia as a manufacturing hub for sports equipment

üJob Security and incentives to sportspersons.

22 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 4. Enabling India to Becoming a Sports Superpower 4 Enabling India to Becoming a Sports Superpower

India is currently ranked 55th in Olympic rankings, down from 50th position in the Beijing Olympics. Despite a large population of 1.2 billion, India has only 0.003 medals per million people, which is not only fractional to top nations like China (0.075) and the USA (0.361), but even lower than countries like Ethiopia (0.088) and Jamaica (3.931).

The London Olympics 2012 saw Indian contingent bagging six medals, from 732 athletes across sixteen disciplines, supported by 129 Indian Duty and 21 foreign coaches and 65 support staff (including 4 from abroad). Approximately ` 135 crores were spent on training since April PPP Immunity Power 2011, when Operation Excellence Models (OPEX) was started. ` 70.35 crore was spent on foreign exposure alone. There were 103 National Camps across the country during this period. Liability

Thus, the crying need for planning, in order to succeed in Olympics or for that matter in any international meet, is very well identified. While in short term, identifying talent, grooming and specific road maps need to be chalked out, in medium term these sportspersons need to be frequently exposed in the international arena. Sports still remain individual-driven in our country, but to succeed internationally, it is important that the Government takes special steps to acknowledge and groom our sportspersons.

As sports become even more competitive, the skill-sets of our participants need to be continuously augmented through professional coaching and world class infrastructure. The fact that the Central and State Governments together spend only around 2 paisa per capita per day on Sports highlights the need to accord greater importance to sports.

Our goal of success in the Olympics depends hugely on the successful promotion of sports as a career option in the country. Awareness build-up for society in sports needs to be in tune with student's preparation for International Maths Olympiad, as an example.

24 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 4.1 PPP as an Enabler in Sports Infrastructure

Policy-wise, sports activities are still Neighborhood Sports Centres through PPP under the entertainment category and needs to be looked at again. The Neighbourhood Sports Centres can be set up segment at present is plagued by the through Public Private Partnership in top 100 l a ck o f i n f r a s t r u c t u r e , p o o r cities in India to make a stronger Nation for m a i n t e n a n c e a n d u n f o c u s e d sports. construction. To give the sector a high quality categorization and quality that There is a need for a Vision and Framework at most sporting facilities demands, it is National, State and City level. important that the sector is given an The funding can be jointly done by the Mission industry status. Directorate under JNNURM and Sports Ministry. The Ministry would come up with a It is the viability of infrastructure that, broad policy framework for capacity building to to a large extent, affects the strengthen the institutional arrangements also sustainability of the projects that can including involvement of private institutions, bring about meaningful private encouraging academic and professional participation. Sports development institutions to build Neighbourhood Sporting needs to be monitored by the Centre facilities on PPP model. and at the same time, the States should develop meaningful sports The activities taken up for financial support policies that critically address the ways should usually be completed within a time and means to overcome the gaps in span not exceeding two years, unless sports infrastructure and promote otherwise decided by the Sanctioning sports development in all respects. Committee. 50% financial support under the JNNURM funds should be extended to the Analysis of the State of policies as well identified institutions/Cities/States for the as the Infrastructural Development in following: Sports in Indian States supports the context of regional diversity in sports in 1. Setting up of Neighbourhood Sporting India. This diversity implies that some facilities States are leaders in this field while 2. Conducting expert training others are still working towards making their presence felt, moreover, different Salient Features: regions specialize in different sports. üPPP can be on the model of BOOT with a According to the Sports Policy, revenue sharing between the Government 2011, the superlative performance of and the investor. the State is attributable to five factors - üRevenue sharing in the ratio of 80:20 until population, per capita income, past exit from the project/transferring the performance, climate and the host- project. effect. Climate and Past Performance of any State with respect to sports are üWith a pay back to the tune of 2.5 times of primarily governed by the policy and the initial investment on an annuity for a

25 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap institutional set up in the States and the period of 15 years from the day of entering remaining factors such as population, into a MoU based on NPV. per capita income are endemic and influenced by a number of other üThis model is currently being adopted by factors. Government of .

The sports policy of most States is The sporting facility will boost sports in formed with the same objectives of different sections of the society. It will house State-of-the-art equipment and facilities for `sports for all' and achieving 'excellence players and coaches, and will cater to different in sports'. However, the micro aspects types of indoor and outdoor sports. (Global under various categories contribute Initiative for Restructuring Environment and towards the diversity in performance by Management). different States.

The buzz word in Infrastructural Development in sports is Public Private Partnership (PPP). While some States like Gujarat, Rajasthan have defined the role of Public Private Partnership in their sports policy; other States like have conceptualized and are moving ahead with the development of Sports Cities on PPP mode. PPP needs to be pragmatically integrated into the sports policy of most States.

The economic costs associated with the urban development in cities are huge; reduction in the number of open spaces being an important one. Sports policy of States like Haryana have explicitly explained the organization of new residential / commercial spaces keeping in mind the need of developing places for development and promotion of sports. Such provisions can have a long term impact on improving the sports culture in every State. Timely planning and development of sports infrastructure seems to the current problem. 4.2 Sustainability through Multi-party Stakeholders

The Social Equity Model derives itself from the basic Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach for the infrastructure sector that is based on Build-Operate-Transfer. However this model attempts to holistically include the community as an active project partner. This model represents a shift away from the regular grant and subsidy model to a social equity model that is based on PPP, implicitly trying to make it more sustainable in the long run.

Most often, this equity would also need to be provided directly or indirectly by the public agency; however ultimately it will be the individual members of the concerned community who will have stake in the project.

The raison d'être of the social equity model is to involve the community in the process of development in order to assure sustainable and inclusive development. The model focuses on involvement of all the stakeholders and provides positive returns to all of them. With a stake in the project, the community is assured of being involved in the decision making and hence assured of all the policies of the project directed towards their well-being. Sports infrastructure development on these lines can address several of the society-driven hurdles and challenges faced today.

26 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Social Equity Model for Sports

NGO(s) - Facilitators - Synergetic Partnerships

Promoter (Entrepreneur/s or Company) Local Community

- Development & - Land at commercial - Private Sector Efficiency Implementation rates - Branding - Equity in Project - Capital & Overall - Structured Participation - Employment Management in Management - Empowerment

Special Purpose Vehicle

-Govt. Facilitation -Fiscal Concessions / Social - Structuring/ Social Equity Financiers / Investors Equity Investment based inclusive debt - Advisory, PPP implementation, private participation

Government

Knowledge Advisory

üThe community can participate in sports projects by entering into agreement with the promoter and forming a part of the SPV by providing part / whole of the required land for the facility.

üThe agreement would also ensure that the community actively participates in the running and management of the facility so as to protect their rights and prevent incorrect use of land.

üThe children of that community would also be given admission to the facility at a subsidized fee.

üIt would be most prudent if the sports facility were linked with the nearest educational institute thereby catering to an assured clientele.

However, it must be realized that the social equity model is a developing concept and not a miracle cure that can innovatively resolve all the social issues and brings about sustainable and inclusive growth. It is a complex contract because of the risks that will be allocated to the parties. Perhaps the biggest challenge is that of actually getting the community to have stake in the project, particularly in India, where a vibrant democratic system relates to a multiple socio-political, religious and culturally diverse society. However, these cannot be considered as barriers to further developing the concept of Social Equity; and knowledge- based institutions can take up the task of studying how to overcome these challenges.

27 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap This knowledge publication has made an effort to present the Vision of making India a Sporting Nation. While research and business understanding has given a broad perspective of the kind of investment and policy impetus required to give sports sector the much needed boost, it is important that we also look at the views of the stakeholders and experts from various sporting sectors to understand the grass-root reality.

28 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 5. Guest Contributors: Views from the Field Is India Losing Steam after Boxing Laurels? Challenges and Opportunities – Sandeep Jajodia

India, for long, has only been known as a cricketing nation. However, going from winning eleven medals in twelve Olympics between 1928 and 1980, to setting the new best for the country winning six total medals in four sports in one Olympic alone, held in London in the year 2012, India has come a long way. Thanks to the media, the Government and a few corporate initiatives, there has been a rise of sports other than Cricket in the recent past.

Talking about our group's association with boxing, I would like to share that with the intent of strengthening the focus on sports in the country; we have established Monnet Sports Foundation. As a first step, we have associated ourselves as the official sponsors of the Indian Boxing Team, to contribute in the development of the sport and also as this sport representing power, strength, agility and endurance, syncs perfectly well with the Group's business operations i.e. steel manufacturing and power generation. Over the years, the boxers and the boxing sport has witnessed considerable growth and has been bringing many laurels for India on national and international levels. Infact, the London Olympics 2012 witnessed the largest ever boxing contingent participating in the games. It further gets validated through the success of the 'Golden Girl' of India and five-time World Boxing Champion, M.C. , who has done India proud by winning a Bronze Medal at the London Olympics 2012 and the unprecedented haul of three gold and four bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games, 2010 along with the stellar performance of in the Asian games, 2010 give just a glimpse of the golden period of Indian Boxing.

The success of boxers and of boxing sport in the London Olympics, 2012 and other international platforms has garnered interest amongst the younger generation and has proved to be a source of inspiration to innumerable budding boxers, particularly young women and girls. Infact these achievements have been acting as a catalyst in transitioning the sport from mere hobby to a full-time career option and have opened new avenues for aspiring boxers to follow their dreams.

However, the challenges posed to India in the world boxing arena are many, the primary being the lack of proper administration and adequate funds for the development of this high-on- adrenaline Sport. There is an urgent requirement of proper training facilities for budding boxers. Also, the potential of most boxers-in-the-making is nipped in the bud with their nutritional

30 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap requirements not being fulfilled. Besides addressing these challenges, another major roadblock is the insufficient media attention the Boxing sport attracts. The power of media to create icons cannot be undermined. It is, thus, important to create hype around the fastest growing game of India.

In India, the opportunities in this sport are immense. The huge unrealized potential that India possesses in terms of future boxing stars has the ability to take on even the best Boxers around the world.

The Monnet Sports Foundation (MSF) has been witness to a number of aspiring boxing champions. Through our efforts in this direction, we have been able to closely link ourselves with some of the most promising boxing champions in the making, residing in small towns but filled with the enthusiasm to conquer the world. It gives me immense pleasure to mention here the case of Anu Rana, the daughter of a security guard at our Raipur plant. A student of Class VII, in Monnet DAV Public School, Raipur, Anu has amazing boxing skills and has won seven Gold medals in the Chhattisgarh State Boxing tournaments and a Gold medal in the weight category 40-42 kg, in the 7th Sub-Junior Women Boxing Championship. Her accomplishments at such a young age are exemplary. Anu's dedication and the aspiration to represent India in the sport of Boxing inspired us to take the onus of fulfilling her dream. Monnet Sports Foundation takes care of her nutritional needs, so that she can undergo proper training regimes, while also providing proper boxing kits to her in order to ensure her safety. Thus, we are continuously striving to take small steps towards our vision of making India known in the arena of world boxing.

Monnet has commenced its journey towards the fulfillment of its vision by becoming the official sponsors of the Indian Boxing Team. We also have plans to set up Monnet Boxing Academies to identify and nurture the untapped boxing talent of India. It is important for us to realize that there is an urgent need to support our budding boxers who have the potential to help India rise and shine on various international platforms. I strongly believe that India has the potential to register itself in the history of world-boxing. India is not losing steam on its boxing laurels, infact, it is just a phase that shall soon pass and Indian Boxing will bounce back with the same zeal and gusto. However, the need of the hour is strong administration and infrastructural support from all quarters - Corporate Organizations, Government Bodies, Voluntary Associations along with the Media playing a responsible role in creating awareness about Boxing and the opportunities associated with it , while also giving due recognition to our boxing stars.

Here's hoping that the Indian Boxing, mired in controversies in the present times, will brave the storm and continue its growth trajectory in times to come.

The author is Vice President, ASSOCHAM and CMD, Monnet Group

31 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Building the Future of our Communities through Sports – Anurag Thakur

Sports connects people across the world, it dispels stereotypes and has often ignited the patriotic fervor amongst communities and countries. In India though, sports activities are a pass time and yet to be seen as a professional career by students and parents alike. What we lack is a sports culture and an environment conducive for budding athletes to flourish; this is made worse by the pittance allocated to Sports year after year in the budget.

If we look at the budgetary allocation for sports and games last year, it was ` 792.72 crore of which ` 45 crore was earmarked for urban sports infrastructure schemes. Do the math, compare that to China's USD 42 Bn splurge on the Olympic Games and you will realize why India's billion strong population - of which over 700 million are under 35 years of age - do not look at sports as a serious career choice. Adding to years of Government apathy is the scam of the CWG, which many believed could have been a turning point for sports in the country.

However, inspite of that, at the age of 14, many years ago, I decided to pursue cricket as a career. I was selected to the U-19 team that played against England at Delhi and Patiala and captained the U-19 cricket team that won the All India Championship. From being a cricket player I took on the role of a sports administrator at the age of 25, becoming the youngest person to lead any sports body of repute in the country - the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. Presently I lead numerous sports bodies such as the BCCI as Hon. Joint Secretary, Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association as its President, Hockey India as its Associate Vice President and the Indian Olympic Association as its Vice President.

With great responsibilities, come greater challenges and there in lie immense opportunities. My love for sports and passion for cricket took shape in the creation of the picturesque international level Cricket Stadium at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. Built on a budget of ` 60 crore, it also has an Indoor Stadium & Rehabilitation Center and will soon be home to a Cricket Museum in honour of . We have hosted four successful seasons of the IPL, matches between UK & Indian MPs and Stars & Indian Parliamentarians. Two Sports Academy's will be run in association with and . Being a sports enthusiast, I decided to develop world class infrastructure across my State and have pledged to build 12 National level cricket stadiums in each District - HQ of which five are already operational. I also plan to build nearly 250 playgrounds across the State and upgrade other sports facilities.

32 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap If world class sports infrastructure can be built at such low costs even in a hilly terrain like Himachal Pradesh, why not across India in every district? As cities grow, spaces for recreation become limited, but why can we not convert our terraces into small basketball courts, our gardens into volleyball or badminton courts and build small hockey fields above parking lots? The recipe to doing that is a vision and passion, the rest fall in place.

Young India is looking for change, they dream of living in an India that offers them hope, confidence and new opportunities. Let us, together and give them that future through sports.

The author is Member of Parliament and Joint Secretary, BCCI

33 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Charting India's Return to Glory in Hockey – Dr. Narinder Batra

The reference to hockey and the term 'returning to its former glory' has been used extensively by media, fans, former players and the public alike for the last couple of years whenever there is a positive change in the sport. Ofcourse, those of us working in Hockey Administration are well aware that it will take more than one tournament or the hiring of that One coach to change the fortunes of Indian Hockey.

So much of the success of any sport lies in the success of its National teams in international competition, and the consistent performance of those teams on the elite stage. In Hockey India, we understand the importance of this success and have taken a two-pronged approach to the success of the sport.

Firstly, we are working closely with the Sports Authority of India and Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports to ensure that there is no compromise with the programmes for our national teams and the best available support and resources are provided to the athletes. Through the success of the National team, the sport receives increased recognition, athletes receive monetary gains and we see an increase in interest from Governments, PSU's, schools and colleges to include hockey in their programmes. The success of the 2013 launch Hockey India League, provides players with unprecedented opportunity to earn money and become professional athletes, and provides the youth with a viable option for a future in the sport.

Secondly, it has been our goal in Hockey India to put in place a strong governance model with practices and processes that provide a solid foundation for the growth of the sport. All the plans, activities and actions being undertaken by Hockey India are about ensuring the long- term sustainable and prosperous future for our athletes and .

Hockey India has been in existence for almost 5 years, and we are extremely proud of what we have been able to achieve in this short space of time. We are already starting to see some of the rewards for this hard work through the increase in members, participation numbers across the country and the extraordinary support that we are receiving from our corporate and broadcast partners. The faith shown by the International Hockey Federation in the granting of one international tournament to India each year for the next 5 years, including the pinnacle of the sport, World Cup in 2018.

The author is Secretary General, Hockey India

34 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap The State of Sports Governance in India Lessons from Cricket – Ayaz Memon

Can Indian sport make a belated sprint to medal glory in the 2020 Olympics? Is it possible to win 20 medals?

Seems completely far-fetched, but consider the achievements of Indian athletes in the last Commonwealth, Asian and Olympic Games despite the diabolical antics of officialdom and an unconcerned Government, and one gets an idea of what is possible if the talent is spotted, encouraged and allowed unfettered expression.

The exploits of Saina Nehwal, Tejaswani Sawant, , Mary Kom, – to name only a few – in the past 18-24 months reveal not just rich talent, but also the ambition and hunger to excel, despite the heavy odds. Imagine then if such athletes – and more like them – could be spotted, harnessed, given the best facilities and training, and then asked to compete at the highest level.

So what needs to be done? I see a far greater role for the private sector of Indian sport, whether it is through not-for-profit initiatives like OGQ, or the direct involvement of corporates (even as a CSR function) as the ` 700 crore largesse for football from Reliance and Mahindras's tie-up with the NBA to nurture basketball at the grassroots level.

This does not absolve the Government of its responsibilities. Not just yet. The two best systems at work today for development of sports as reflected by medals won in multi- discipline mega-event events are that of China (State funded) and the USA and Australia (privately funded, run on broad Government policies and objectives).

India must, I believe, lean heavily towards the latter model as time passes, when the economy matures completely and the ethos of the country become `sporting' enough for private funding to be par for the course. But for the present, the Government must play a major role to the extent of increasing sports funding, and loosely overseeing progress made by the federations, without actually trying to run the sport.

Why am I bullish? Demographics and economic growth projected for the next decade should actually facilitate India becoming a sporting giant. With a huge young population and all the

35 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap infrastructure, support services and expertise that money can afford becoming available, what can prevent this is Government sloth and public indifference.

The dismal state of Indian sports is not so much because of graft as poor governance and very low accountability. Not seen as a priority sector, most federations leading up to the Indian Olympic Association, have become dens of maladministration and related shenanigans rather than focusing on excellence and results.

In order to stop the rot, sport needs to be saved as much as possible from political interference and Government control and handed over to professional management. My recommendation is to set up a National Sports Council which will formulate policy and oversee execution of blueprint set out by the Government.

The United States and Australia, for instance, don't have sports ministries. Indeed, success of the Australian Sports Council shows how the Government need only play the role of providing a vision and funds, and the sports council takes over from there.

We also need, and this is vital, to have a national auditing body under the Sports Council which will not only monitor the progress of the various sports federations – for everything from financial responsibility to results – but also set down best practices and standards.

Nothing of this can be effective if talent is not identified and nurtured from a very young age. A National School and Collegiate Sports Council is the next step. For sporting prowess to be taken seriously by both parents and educational institutions, a career in sport has to be more real and accessible than the generally held impossible dream of becoming one of 11 players in the Indian cricket team. An Indian Institute of Sport – on the lines of our famed technology institutes – is a long overdue idea and will be a sure way of getting a sports career in India on a professional tack.

Steps to Progress:

1) A National Sports Council formed, reporting say to the President. The NSC is funded by the Government, but run independently.

2) The NSC looks at Infra, education, competitions, Audit/Compliance of federations, interface with IOA, health and HRD ministries to pursue national vision.

3) The NSC board is drawn from people from various strata of society. The Australia Sports Council chairman, for instance, is Warwick Smith who is also chairman of ANZ Bank in New South Wales; other board members are made up of technocrats, former Olympians, a media-person etc.

36 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 4) The NSC would be run by a CEO who is accountable to the Board / Council.

5) Big thrust in schools and collegiate sport, run independently by the National Sports Council.

6) Audit and compliance faction looks at money spent as well as progress made by federations. A rating system comes into place. Poor performing federations will have their budgets slashed. Federations can look at swelling their kitties through private sponsorship for events / rewarding athletes.

7) Indian Institute of Sports will be with HRD ministry – looks into aspects of nutrition, fitness, management of sports, sports science/medicine, performance parameters, development of Elite athletes.

8) Crucially, the autonomy of various Federations and the IOA – which reports consistently to the world bodies governing the sport – is not compromised. But new system makes them accountable for the money/grants it receives from Government increasing transparency.

Why is being a `sporting country' so vital? Apart from the obvious benefits to the health index, this also reflects the soft power of a State. I can't think of one major country – in the modern world and past civilizations -- that was also not a powerhouse in sports.

There is a strong feeling of achievement and pride in the Indian psyche now. Indians want to be winners, not merely participants. Young India is ready to get, set, go! Are the powers that be, and we the people too?

The author is a Senior Sports Journalist

37 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Five Things that can help Improve Sports in India – Shamya Dasgupta

There is probably nothing that brings as many people together – in amity and enmity – as sport does. But big sport is also big money, and big power, and that's probably what has led to things going a bit pear-shaped over the years. Too many administrators, around the world, are looking at sport through the prism of economics. Only through the prism of economics. At the cost of everything else that makes sport what it is. It's not too different in India where, rich or poor, every sport is in trouble in some way or the other.

I don't think anyone has an exhaustive enough blueprint to change this, but since I have been asked to send in some words on what can improve world sport, here's my two-bit on the subject:

The fan must come first

It was in early 2012 that Bayern Munich came to play a football match in New Delhi. I think it was converted to being Bhaichung Bhutia's farewell match. I was there at Stadium, where the game was played. Not one fan – and the stands were packed – could sit on the bucket seats installed at the stadium for the Commonwealth Games, which took place barely two years before the match. Why? Because every seat was lined with bird droppings. More recently, I was at , watching a domestic cricket match. Again, the filth on the seats meant people had to spread newspapers on them to sit down.

Being a journalist and usually sitting in the press box when at matches, people like me don't get to know about these things. When we encounter them, it becomes clear why spectators don't go to the stadia to watch sport.

And the examples I just gave are of showpiece events – a big domestic cricket match and a football match featuring a global giant. What about smaller matches, less prominent sports, lesser sportspersons? Think kho-kho or wrestling or boxing. I have been to national-level boxing events where people need to stand all through. At a women's boxing event – I am talking about the Asian Championships in 2004 in here – the boxers had to walk through massive groups of men to their changing areas. Areas - not rooms. And wrap towels around them to change after finishing a bout.

38 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Where, in the rest of the developed world, going to a stadium to watch sport is an experience, an outing, a picnic almost, why is it such an ordeal in India? Is there anything at the venues to attract people? Are there clean toilets? Are there food stalls, forget stalls with moderately hygienic food? Is care taken to make spectators feel that they are stakeholders in the game?

Money must be directed towards sportspersons

Sport is a microcosm of life, it is said, and that's so true in India, where corruption is almost a way of life and, therefore, sport is not immune to it. For every administrator of a 'small' sport that tells you he has no money to improve that sport, you'll find ten documents confirming that money has, indeed, been sent their way. What the money was used for, of course, is anybody's guess.

It's a no-brainer that money must go towards sportspersons. Not to their pockets, but in terms of facilities that will make them better. And facilities don't just include a great training area. It includes incentives, nutrition, scientific research for better performance and much else. An athlete, a top-level athlete, must not have to worry about anything apart from the job at hand. That's what money must be able to do.

Make sport a lucrative profession

As a corollary to the previous point, far too many athletes take up sport for wrong reasons. It's not their fault. It's the fault of what we vaguely call the system. A lion's share of our non-elite sportspersons comes from extremely poor families, where two square meals or an education are negotiable. When they turn to sports, they do so to earn a living and to get a Government job and a quarter that would take care of their needs.

I have spoken of this in the past, many times, but it needs to be said again: when a person becomes an athlete to get a job and a Government quarter, it's stupid to expect that athlete to dream of an Olympic medal.

People must be brought to sport for the right reasons. Yes, give good athletes jobs and quarters and whatever else you have to, but make the most talented athletes in the country aspire for glory. Whatever it takes.

See what the BCCI has done right

A lot of us blame cricket for cornering a big chunk of the sponsorship money and attention of the people, but that's about as stupid an excuse as possible. Cricket gets the money and attention it does because it deserves all of it. Cricket's administrators have managed to create a product that people are willing to consume. Few other sports have had administrators doing even a fraction of what cricket has had. Sitting back and blaming others for your mistakes will

39 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap only get you so far. The initiative to get up and do something constructive has been sadly lacking in our sports administrators. Till that remains the case, not much is likely to change. And cricket will take away even more of the money and the attention.

Honesty and integrity – the right people in charge

Which brings us to the final point – about having the right people in the right places. All four points above culminate in this – if the right people are placed in positions of authority, each of the other things can happen.

Who should these people be? Former sportspersons? Politicians? People from civil society? I don't know. There's no reason to believe any of them would do the job better or worse than the others. The key is intent. It all goes back to what many people have said about Indian sport in the past – the problem is that we don't have a sporting culture. True. But that can't be undone. What can be changed, however, is the mindset. If the right people with the right intentions can be put in positions of responsibility – in sport and elsewhere – India, and Indian sport could change. For the better!

The author is Senior Editor, Wisden India

40 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Vision Olympics 2020: Inculcating a Sporting Culture among the Youth – Manisha Malhotra

Sport in our country has come a long way. The common public can even name you a couple of shooters which would never have been possible 10 years ago! That being said, for sport to be absorbed into the mainstream we still have a long way to go.

With all the Olympic qualifiers for Rio 2016 coming up this year, it is safe to say that we once again embark on the cycle of sporting life where there will hopefully be new stars rising to the top. However, the biggest hurdle we face is the lack of planning.

Other countries have already set wheels in motion for 2024. The experts will tell you that you need at least 10 years to create Olympic athletes who can compete for medals. So we need to be now shortlisting juniors who can eventually go on to be serious contenders.

While India now has the funds and the talent has always been there, what we need to focus on is expertise. The country just doesn't have enough coaches to create world class athletes; we also don't have the experts for peripherals like sports medicine, physiotherapy, mental training and administration. This coupled with the lack of a proper system, just ensures that we don't harness all the talent possible.

The vision for 2020 should be just to get a good and clear understanding whereby the Government, Federations, Sports Authorities, and Private Sector all work together towards a common goal. Right now, it is all these agencies working on their own and while there have been some results it is hardly enough.

Nothing unites a nation like sports, and this year is going to be quite a bonanza; World championships, Asian and Commonwealth Games all within a span of 6 months is going to be great not only for the fans but also for the athletes. The fact that the media does cover all these event will allow for a lot of exposure.

The sports industry is still in its nascent stages in the country, but as we do better and better on the world stage it will keep growing. For sports to breakthrough to the mainstream, it is imperative for the school system to adopt competitive sport as part of their programs. However, the single biggest factor is quality. If we can produce enough world class talent and the domestic levels are high competition the rest will take care of itself.

41 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap IPL style leagues are the main attraction with all sports trying to come up with their own versions. This is great for the exposure of the sport and also makes the overall industry grow. These packages which are now using sport as another avenue for entertainment definitely creates jobs and more importantly a buzz. Just as in most of the other industries in our country, there is no systematic path being followed and the industry seems to be growing in a fragmented manner. It will be some time until we see sport as a viable career option but I do believe we are seeing green shoots of that trend. We are a nation that thrives in organized chaos and it will be interesting to see if this works for the sporting business

The author is CEO, Mittal Champions Trust

42 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 'My Olympic Journey': Steps to Encourage and Popularizing Badminton in India – Saina Nehwal

When I was 18 years old, I was asked to participate in Beijing Olympics in 2008. My mind set was still immature, but I played and reached the Quarter Final of that chapter. I lost by a narrow margin to the Indonesian player, Yulianti, who went on to win the bronze medal. I was denied due justice in the decider, and I lost by 3-11 to her, else I might have done it.

Subsequently, I worked hard and prepared well and got honoured with various awards and accolades such as the Commonwealth Gold in 2010, the Arjuna Award, Rajiv Khel Rattan, Padma Shri and several Super Series Badminton Tournaments. In June 2012, I defeated Lixuari who had previously won a Gold medal during the 2012 Olympics in August.

I was determined to win an Olympic Medal for my country and with best of training from my coaches, particularly Shri Gopalchandji, and the relentless support from my parents, I achieved what I aspired for. I am thankful to my admirers, who gave me all the strength to show my talent in winning the Olympic medal. I still have a lot of badminton in me and I wish to perform well in 2016 Olympics. I pray to almighty to keep me healthy and injury free in my mission for 2016.

India is a leading country where a number of young players, both women and men, are ranked amongst the world's top 30 badminton players. Our nation has been able to achieve this feat in the last 5 years because of the initiatives taken by Govt. of India and the Badminton Association of India. A lot of development is taking place nowadays and Badminton players are being given all the necessary amenities infrastructure in facilities such as Gachhibowli and Gopichand Academy which have world-class playing courts; coaches such as Mr. Gopi Chand and a few foreign coaches (mainly from Indonesia); renowned physiotherapists; good food in national camps; and a lot of travel opportunities to travel to different countries and participate in tournaments. All this has been possible because of the efforts of Ministry of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Sports and the keen patronage provided by the Badminton Association of India. These facilities should be constantly improved and the infrastructure should be broadened and extended to more aspiring players in all the major cities of India. I am hopeful to see better results and winning medals for Indian Badminton in the next Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics.

43 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Money is an important factor for players to participate in tournaments. Several Indian Financial Houses have contributed to the sport and helped making IBL a big success. They helped creating a competition with lucrative prize money which motivated the youth to opt for Badminton as a sport. This truly was the motive of IBL. Moreover, such competitions are bound to give better results for the promotion of the game in any country and India also did it very successfully in 2013. I wish this tournament continues and many more are created in the future. The overall impact will be for the betterment of the sport and many young players will be benefitted with some healthy competition.

Recently, a lot of talented Badminton players, including Lee Chong Wee – World No. 1 in the Men's category have visited India. This has encouraged the youth to follow Badminton and given them an opportunity to take inspiration from some international players. I strongly feel that the IBL has played a very crucial role in promoting Badminton in India

The author is an Indian Badminton Player and an Olympic Medallist

44 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap The Future of Indian Badminton – Prakash Padukone

For a change there are a lot of good things to talk about Indian badminton at the moment. Not that there are no negatives or controversies in the game. But overall things are moving in the right direction.

To begin with, Indian players are doing well on the international scene, with Saina and Sindhu leading the way. These two girls have shown that we are not only capable of breaking into the Top 10 in the world, but can also win medals at the Olympics and World Championships. There is a lesson here for the Indian men shutters'. Even though we have 5-6 Indian men in the top 50 in the Men's Singles World ranking, not even one player has been able to break into the top 10 and remain there for a fairly long period. There could be 2 reasons for this: Either they feel satisfied with what they have achieved or they need to put in much more effort and be more focused to remain consistent. Not that they are not focused at the moment, but just that it is not enough to get them to the top 10. They quickly need to realize this and make adjustments accordingly to reach the pinnacle.

It is an irony of sorts that we have two girls in the Top 10, but after that, one has to admit that there is a big, big gap. On the other hand, in the men's category there is a lot more depth but not even one player has been able to perform consistently at the highest level. Even at the junior level there are far more promising boys than girls who are likely to do well internationally going forward.

While our singles players are doing reasonably well, our performance in paired events has not been that encouraging. Barring Jwala & Ashwini in the Women's Doubles, no other Indian pair has achieved anything worthwhile on the world stage. We have a long way to go in the paired events.

BAI needs to do a lot more for the Double's Players. They need to have a separate coach only for Double's & start training players with a flair for Double's right from a young age. Ideally the Single's & Double's camps should be held separately and not combined. There should be a totally different set of players, coaches, venues, training schedule etc. for paired events. Right now there is too much focus on singles. This trend has to change if we have to improve considerably in the Doubles events and it will not happen on its own. BAI will have to make sure that it happens by taking some pro-active steps.

45 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap The wind of Positive changes in Indian Badminton is there for everyone to see, the recent success of the Indian Badminton League is a case in point. BAI should ensure that it is rightfully taken to the next level. They should not be too greedy & try to handle everything on their own as they just do not have the expertise to run an event of this stature. On the other hand, they should try to strengthen the domestic circuit. There is a sudden spurt in the number of players playing the game and also in terms of new courts coming up in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities across the country. This is a good sign that needs to be tapped.

In conclusion, Indian Badminton is on a high, having said that, a lot more needs to be done by BAI to take the game to the next level, whether that actually happens remains to be seen.

The author is a former Indian Badminton Player

46 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Raising the Popularity of Golf in India – Rishi Narain

While golf has enjoyed a fair share of corporate sponsorship and media coverage in recent years, the sport and its related industry is in its infancy compared to even neighbouring countries like Thailand and .

The key requirement is for new infrastructure in terms of driving ranges and public access golf courses. Despite the success and popularity over the past two decades of Delhi's Delhi Development Authority owned Driving Range and Qutab Golf Course, other civic bodies in the country have not followed the example other than Chandigarh and Panchkula. In 2013, Mumbai has developed a high quality 9 - hole public course and range in Khargar, but besides these examples, no new public facilities have been built.

The Professional Golf Tour of India can further thrive as a spectator sport just like soccer and American football do, provided the public is educated on terminology, rules and strategy required so they can watch the game on television or at the venues. Active marketing of the tour to the public is also critical to attract eyeballs and crowds. A lot is to be done on these fronts as even though an active twenty week long professional tour exists in India, as, since 2011, growth has been negative in terms of sponsor investments and prize money on offer.

Golf is unique in terms of the real estate industry's affinity to the sport. Golf course views and access adds value and marketability to high end real estate. In 2014, fifteen such new golf based real estate projects across the country are in various stages of delivery. The potential demand exists for many more provided roads going outside the cities improve so access time shortens to areas where vast tracts of land become available for golf related real estate. Golf real estate projects require project sizes of anywhere from 75 acres for a 9 - hole course to 500 acres, for an 18 - hole championship course.

Golf Tourism worldwide is a multi-billion dollar industry with Thailand Tourism alone recording 750,000 golf specific tourist arrivals in 2013 with an average spend of 100,000 baht (` 2,00,000 approx.) per visiting golfer! Malaysia and recently Turkey also, have cashed in on this lucrative opportunity making investments in purpose built golf tourist resorts. India has the competitive advantage of cool winter weather in the north and year round pleasant weather in places like to offer golfers. However, to establish a Golf Tourism destination, a minimum cluster

47 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap of six to ten World Class Championship Courses connected to international airports, five star hotels, shopping, nightlife and other tourist attractions is the requirement. Currently, the National Capital Region and perhaps Bangalore come close to this description. The Ministry of Tourism has made strong commitments towards promoting India as a golf destination and in the coming years, with better services at golf courses and active marketing, India could see a trickle of visitors coming in for golf.

To grow any sport; the need for trained coaches and well managed academies to introduce students to the game are required. There is a huge shortage of skilled manpower in India for the golf industry. Establishment of an academy with world class coaches, physical and mental trainers, physiotherapists and psychologists is required. Today, keen students from India are travelling across the world for coaching as they seek updated, state-of-the-art analysis and instruction.

All these factors are well within reach in the coming decade but a concerted effort will need to be made by various stakeholders in order to deliver on the vast promise that golf holds for this country.

The author is Former Golfer and Founder, Rishi Narain Golf Management Pvt. Ltd.

48 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Solving the Great Indian Football Jigsaw: The Way Forward – Bhaichung Bhutia

Even after my retirement from international football, I have been fortunate enough to be involved in the development of the sport in India on various fronts. While the challenges facing Indian football are many, I am excited by the potential of this country and its youth, which I have experienced on account of my travelling far and wide through during my football career. It is now my aim to connect the stakeholders in the country for the benefit and growth of this glorious game with those who participate in it.

At first we look at the role played by the governing body, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in ensuring overall development of the sport in the country. The major objective of AIFF is to strive towards achieving technical excellence of the sport at all levels and thus build a National team that can bring pride, joy and happiness to the people of our country through its winning performance. Long-term success of the national team is crucial for a sport to advance in any country. This is the reason one can see millions of dollars invested for technical excellence every year by various clubs and countries across the world. In my role as Chairman of the Technical Committee of the AIFF, my aim is to ensure that all the development programs of the AIFF including performance of the national teams are implemented in the right way in terms of ideal philosophy, methodology and spirit.

Another key factor is the role of infrastructure. It is imperative not only to develop high-quality infrastructure but also to make available such infrastructure to football players of all age groups which can help them hone their skills. The Technical Committee of AIFF recognizes this and my challenge will be to bring together various stakeholders such as the Sports Authority of India, the AIFF and private bodies for this common cause.

Most importantly, for national teams to be successful, we need to develop excellent Indian footballers. With increasing competitiveness in world football, it has become very important how we develop the youth talent at the grassroots level. We have to ensure that the basics of the sport are taught in the right way and at the right age. It is not common to find that several of our youngsters are taught football with wrong concepts at the grassroots level which in turn act as a hurdle for the talented youngsters to become a top quality footballer. This aspect is a vital cog in the wheel of the Technical Development Plan of AIFF under its vision document 'Lakshya'. Through the grassroots initiatives, i have founded, Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools (BBFS) and Indian Football Foundation (IFF). We have worked closely with the AIFF

49 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap in co-authoring its master plan Lakshya. Now, as we strive to implement the planned vision, the BBFS team is working with Rob Baan and Scott O'Donnell to develop the coaching curriculum for AIFF at various levels. While covering one aspect and imparting the right skills to the children, it is also vital that we do not miss out on a potential “Messi” or a “Ronaldo” due to socio-economic reasons. BBFS is presently India's largest grassroots football training program and with the help of our not-for-profit organization, Indian Football Foundation we wish to extend these services to needy or under-privileged and talented youngsters by providing financial and technical scholarships.

Finally, we often forget about the players, who are the biggest stakeholders of any sport. They make sacrifices for their career in the hope that the sport will give them what they want in life. The players can give their best performance only if they are given adequate resources in terms of technical support and playing conditions. The Football Players Association of India (FPAI) was formed for the welfare of Indian players. Now as Asia's representative to the Technical Committee of FIFPRO, the world footballers' association, my job will be to further the cause of players in the continent at the global stage.

India is a large and diverse country, while that makes our talent base very rich, it also poses complicated challenges. Much will depend on how the stakeholders collaborate for a common purpose so that we can start solving bit by bit the great jigsaw that is Indian Football.

The author is Founding Trustee, Indian Football Foundation and India’s longest serving football Captain

50 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Creating a Mark on the International Football Map: India's 5 year plan – Sunil Chhetri

Like most footballers chasing their professional dreams in India, my journey has been one involving struggle and hard work in equal measure. If there was any consolation, it was the support my parents lent me during this phase. Football has been a part of the family DNA with my father turning out for the armed forces team while my mother took to the sport in Nepal.

Afternoons as a six-year-old were the most awaited time of the day for me. Not because it was a chance to win, but a chance to kick around a football with my father after he returned from work. We beat the heat every day and all he would tell me was to never give up till I think I have given my all.

The phase of my life done, we moved to Delhi where I was fortunate enough to get admission in the Army Public School. I was in grade seven when a coach by the name of Mr. Ghalay was convinced that I should attend trials for the State team. He even convinced my parents to let me go. While my parents loved sport, academics were equally important to them. Fortunately, I wasn't too bad with books either.

While in school, I turned out for a local team and we happened to do well and qualify for the . It was a tournament where big guns like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mahindra United turned up and it was an honour for me to be playing against these teams. The tournament proved to be a blessing for me when I was one among the five players from the Durand Cup who stood out.

One thing leads to another and before I knew it, I had signed for Mohun Bagan while in class twelve. That was the beginning of my career in professional football.

But while a lot changed for me, the one thing that didn't was the sight of parents shouting for me from the stands. Even today, things are no different. I owe everything I have achieved to my family and friends who have stuck by me through thick and thin.

My advice to the young aspiring footballers isn't something new but is very important - there are no short cuts to success. Hard work is the key. Believe in yourself and play to enjoy the game. Your coach always knows best.

51 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap I congratulate the AIFF for its fantastic job and winning the hosting rights to the under - 17 World Cup in 2017. They also deserve credit for giving a club like Bengaluru FC a chance to play the I-League. The club is nothing short of amazing with the best facilities and professionalism. Teams like Bengaluru FC promise to go a long way in changing the scenario of Indian football.

Will the new proposed league offer to be a game-changer for Indian football? The proposed League may be a good proposition if it promotes Indian football and attract crowd in the stadium to watch the matches. Though there has been some confusion among clubs, players and the AIFF over the league but its best that all concerned parties come together to work something that will benefit the football lovers and the Indian football.

The author is Captain, Indian Football Team

52 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Sustainable Domestic Leagues in Indian Football – Parth Jindal

There is no doubt that football is a hugely popular game in India. Being a club owner myself, I have first-hand been able to experience how truly popular the game is. Whether in Kolkata, or Bengaluru the passion that the fans have for the game is second to none. However, the game is still far behind in terms of popularity when compared to cricket, hockey, badminton, tennis and others. I believe that it is the performance of a country's National team that truly determines how popular the sport and in turn its domestic league becomes. Is it merely a coincidence that the IPL is the most popular league in the country, followed by the IBL and the IHL? If one looks at the National teams standing in those various sports, one will understand why. Thus in order to create a truly successful league in India, it is going to be imperative for the performance of our National team to improve. This is where, the league, the clubs and the fans will play a huge role.

It is very important that India does not try to reinvent the wheel. Looking eastward and westward in order to see where the other powerhouses have succeeded will be crucial. There is a lot to learn from countries such as England, Brazil, Spain and to name a few. Today India is in a position of advantage, as we can see what has happened in leagues across the world, we can incorporate the positive aspects and weed out the negative aspects by creating the adequate checks and balances. It is no secret that football clubs the world over grapple with the habitual and chronic problem of economic instability, over-spending and bad financial management, the recent examples of River Plate football club, the Glasgow Rangers and Portsmouth FC show that no matter how big the club, no club is safe from the perils of poor financial management. Further, big clubs the world over, lose money and depend on Billionaire owners to bail them out year after year. We must not follow this. We must create a league where clubs are managed and grown sustainably.

What we can see in successful leagues across the world is that the more financially secure clubs are the more successful; the clubs with the bigger fan base and thus bigger revenue do better than the smaller clubs. The simple truth is that with more money comes better talent, more competition and financial stability. Commercially speaking, clubs typically have three main sources of revenue: TV rights, sponsorships and match day revenues. I believe that if we are to make our league more sustainable, these three issues need to be addressed head-on. In

53 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap successful leagues all over the world, TV rights typically form the biggest source of revenue for clubs. Take for example the Barclays Premier League. For the big 5 teams in the premiership (Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City), television revenue contributes to approximately 30-40% of total revenue. Furthermore, in the 2011-2012 Season, 6 of the 20 EPL clubs relied on TV rights for over 70% of their total revenue. Going forward, television revenue will be a huge factor in determining whether the Indian league is successful or not. In order to do this, clubs will have to build a proper fan base, a fan base similar to what all the leading clubs in Europe and Asia have built not only in their localities but world over.

Today fans in India, support clubs from all over the world. I myself am a diehard Arsenal fan. Is it my local club? Did I grow up in London? No, then why is it that I support Arsenal? The truth is, growing up I happened to watch Arsenal and a certain Dennis Bergkamp play. The manner and style with which they play under Arsene Wenger till today is the reason I started watching them and is the reason I continue to. World over, people support Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona etc for much the same reasons. Having said this, do I feel a genuine connection to Arsenal? My personal connection and those of millions of fans in India to these clubs is very thin if at all. It is here where the opportunity lies, if India is able to create a proper league where every city or region in a city becomes passionate about their club and roots for them, we will be able to create true fans. I am not saying that fans in India will stop watching the Premier league, they probably won't as it will take a great deal of time for Indian football to match up to European standards, however it is very possible that they will be willing to support their local team as well. Similar to what Mumbai feels about Sachin, about Dhoni and Kolkata about Ganguly, football clubs and the local media have to help the fans feel that sense of "apnaness", that sense of oneness with their clubs. It is in the filling of this void where the opportunity truly lies. If the media, along with the clubs are able to do this, football frenzy will grip this nation and TV rights will become lucrative for the broadcaster as well as the clubs. Although on the face of it, the onus lies on clubs to start building its brand from the bottom-up and look to seek this revenue on merit, if the clubs are not adequately supported by the TV channels, the print and electronic media then no matter how much we as clubs may try, fans will prefer to watch the better televised European leagues.

In order to generate sponsorship and match day revenues, the Government, the State football associations and the AIFF have to allow individual club owners to redevelop the stadiums. Today, fans are used to the match day experience that a cricket match provides them. If football stadiums continue to remain in their current sub-standard state, clubs will never be able to provide their fans with a true match day experience which makes them want to come back for the next game. Providing instant replays, bucket seats, food and drink is the least a fan expects in India now days. Failure to provide this will not attract the fans. We at Bengaluru FC have tried to create a unique match day experience in the context of Indian football and we have seen that it works. Sold out stadiums is something we have got used to seeing. Our experience has

54 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap shown that fans are willing to spend money to support and see quality football – but they expect the club to put on a show that is worthy of their money and time.

Further, creating a sustainable league is also about ensuring a healthy youth system with a competitive structure that facilitates the growth of indigenous players. This will go a long-way towards ensuring that the future of the sport in the country is secure. Who knows, there could come a time when the top clubs of Europe are scouting for talent in India. If done right, this could become another income stream for the clubs as it has in Brazil, Turkey, and Spain etc.

All in all, the beautiful game in India can have a very beautiful future if all the key stakeholders come together. The fact that football is getting so much prominence and is being discussed in forums such as these just shows how much interest there is to truly improve the sport in our country. With a little support, every Indian football fans dream of one day seeing their country in the World Cup can be achieved. Be rest assured, Bengaluru FC will leave no stone unturned and will make all efforts to contribute as much as possible to the growth of this wonderful sport in India.

The author is CEO, Bengaluru FC and Economic Analyst, JSW Steel

55 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Sustainable Domestic Leagues in Indian Football – Nandan Piramal

If Indian football is to improve, we would need a strong domestic football structure; this would include but not limited to a strong domestic league. This needs to be coupled with a reserve league, year round age group tournaments and grassroots development activities. Currently, a lot of I-League teams focus on their U - 19 teams but by the time a player is 16 or 17 years, it is already quite late to teach him technical aspects of the game. In an ideal youth set up, clubs should start coaching players between the ages of 8-10 years.

India's premier football tournament is the I-League. Currently, thirteen teams participate in the I-League, which lasts for approximately 8 months (this is in line with Asian Football Confederation's criteria), the top team gets to play in the Asian Champions League and the bottom team gets relegated.

The I-League is very competitive, and very often the I-League winners are decided during the last round of matches and relegation battles are just as fierce. Contrary to perceptions, Indian footballers' salaries are quite high when compared to other Asian countries and the average attendance for I-League is also one of the highest in Asia.

Another common misconception is that football is only popular in the larger cities, but the truth could not be further from this. The best example of this could be the 2014 . Kerala hosted the 2014 Federation Cup at two venues Manjeri and . Kochi is a much larger city with a population of approximately 2 million people but only a couple of thousand people turn up for games, but Manjeri with a population of just over a lac sold out every game with over ten thousand people attending each game.

Manjeri Kochi

56 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap However, there are certain issues that also plague the I-League:

Pan India appeal

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has identified this problem and has taken the necessary steps to improve the I-League's footprint. The AIFF has put a cap on the number of I-League / Division 2 teams that can participate from a particular State & City. Apart from this, the AIFF has also started selling I-League franchises in cities that do not have an I- League team.

Club Structures

The AIFF has also made it compulsory for domestic clubs to fulfil the club licensing criteria. In the past, expenses for football teams were written off as a part of the corporate social responsibility expenses of larger companies. Due to this, there was little or no attention paid on Fan Development / Community Development / Youth development at the club. The new club licensing criteria has made it compulsory for football clubs to be separate legal entities and has also set up guidelines fan development, community development and youth development. There is also a salary cap in place, which has made it compulsory for clubs to invest on football infrastructure.

League's Structure

Currently, I-League clubs get a subsidy but are not stakeholders in the league. Due to the above, there is less incentive for clubs to invest in the marketing of the league. It has been seen globally that values of leagues go up considerably when clubs have stake in the league.

For a country as large as India with a population of over a billion people, we cannot have only thirteen professional clubs for players to showcase their talent. We should encourage teams to participate from the smallest towns and villages. An ideal structure for Indian football would be an inclusive one, where district leagues feed clubs to the State league which in turn become a feeder league to the national leagues.

The author is Executive Vice- Chairman – Sports, Ashok Piramal Group and co-owner, FC

57 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Grassroots Development in Indian Football – Priti Srivastava

Indian football is hoping for a better future as hosts of the upcoming 2017 FIFA Under - 17 World Cup. It gives India the much needed push to set its house in order in regard to overall youth development.

The All India Football Federation under the guidance of world football governing body FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and its own technical staff led by Technical Director Rob Baan are working to create a self-sustainable Indian youth development system. This has led to the creation of AIFF Regional Academies besides an AIFF Elite Academy for the India Under - 19 boys. Further an AIFF grassroots program has been initiated by the federation and efforts are on trying to it spread out across the country.

At the moment, these programs are restricted to certain pockets as not all State Federations have adopted it and they are waiting to reach the masses, which is the aim of all of the AIFF's initiatives across India. The vision is, these programs shouldn't just be about hand-picked number of boys going through a proper youth development system, but rather as many children as possible playing the beautiful game of football filtered through the system from the bottom to the top in a pyramid structure.

India needs a grassroots program which is spread across the length and breadth of the country. The country needs a program which goes into schools, football nurseries (training centres, football schools, academies), works with NGOs, children in rural India and areas which are difficult to access as talent knows no boundaries.

Millions of children, boys and girls, across the age groups of 6 to 12 years of age need to be a part of the program best scouted by qualified coaches for further camps at the Local, District, State, Regional and National Level. This way the development pyramid could take shape, but results should not be expected overnight as development of such a program would need seven to 10 years, if not more.

The challenges are many to execute the above program. AIFF needs huge financial support and the appropriate manpower to run and implement a nationwide program. There would be a need for hundreds of AFC 'D' and 'C' licence coaches, who could run the program.

58 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap There are no shortcuts to talent development and implementing the right, appropriate model is the need of the hour for grassroots development in Indian football. And with the dawn of preparations starting for the, upcoming 2017 FIFA Under - 17 World Cup, it is assumed that AIFF with all its stakeholders and the Government will support in creating the right infrastructure to implement grassroots programmes.

But surely, the culture and mind set in Indian Football is changing and the future lies in Grassroots Development.

The author is Vice President, Corporate Affairs,

59 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Taking Football to Schools: Community Development, Administrative Hurdles and Winning Formula – Kishore Gam Taid

There is no denying the fact that the three pillars for development of in the future are going to be: a) youth development, b) enhancement of technical knowledge capital, and c) infrastructure development. There is also another aspect - macro-level marketing of the game through strengthening and professionalizing competitive leagues. However, any growth will be sustainable in the long run only if there is real value creation within the system and at the grassroots. So, it is important to understand some of the practical challenges and explore possible solutions.

Youth Development

For the promotion and development of football in India it is imperative to spread the sport in a structured and professional manner to those who will be at center stage of competitive football in the next 10 to 15 years. Clearly, the target demography is the age group of 4-14 years, which includes largely all school children across the country. Further, most of the children today in India are involved in sports through their respective schools. In order to reach out to these millions of school-children, we must take organized football to the schools.

Engagement at the school level involves various aspects of structuring and professionalizing the sport. This involves consideration of how it is administered in the country, as well as projected to the youth. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the initiative, of crucial regard is the target audience—children—to whom these initiatives must be attractively presented, to ignite a long-term interest.

In a nutshell, it is important to unify proposals taken across the country at the school level and integrate them into a National level pyramid of progression. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has a huge role to play in this regard, including but not limited to the introduction of school programs in the form of Zonal, Regional and National Level ongoing youth leagues on the same lines as the prevalent professional I-League structure. This form of exposure is organic and directly engages the youth without forcing to choose between education and sports (in a professional manner).

60 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Infrastructure

Beyond the structuring of school programs (as highlighted above), development of infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges in our country as unanimously agreed by all stakeholders of Indian Football. Even before improving the quality of existing infrastructure, it is necessary to first make available open spaces to our children which unfortunately are dwindling by the day especially in cities. Given the huge demand and investment required in this regard, we need to look for more economic solutions. Today custodians of most playgrounds including football fields are the municipal corporations, private and Government schools, State Governments and the Sports Authority of India. There is an urgent need for these spaces to be opened up for the youth, the very beneficiaries for whom these infrastructures were originally built. Given that most of the above custodians find it difficult to maintain the infrastructure on an ongoing basis, it could be a win-win situation if partnerships with other private entities (such as academies, clubs, associations etc.) are encouraged. Such strategic tie-ups not only add to the quality of education but also help channelize CSR funds and other financial aid for further developing the concerned infrastructure. Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools has been successfully collaborating with several progressive schools in this regard while also exploring possibilities with local municipalities to develop and better utilize existing spaces.

Knowledge Capital

Developing world-class players starts with the identification of capable athletes and the creation of a central pool of talent, before beginning to nurture them in the right way. This in turn will depend on the quality of teachers, i.e., coaches that we are able to develop. We often undermine this aspect of human capital, which in fact shapes the future of our talented youth. Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools and the Indian Football Foundation are doing their bit by collaborating with the AIFF to enhance the technical knowledge in this country as well as conducting free training workshops for hundreds of coaches in the recent past. Conceptually sound training expertise not just helps in faster development of skills in young players but also helps engage the children more closely with the game. If there is a single most important factor behind the success of Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools, it is the focus on human capital and the kind of investments that is made in this regard.

For India to achieve a significant position on the world stage, we must recognize the importance of starting young and create a long-term road map for the future, for which action must start now.

The author is Co-founder, Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools

61 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

Sports Marketing:

Changing the Game – Ashish Chadha Goals are always in demand. There will always be a market for a “ striker who is fast, scores goals regularly and is strong. I've scored more than 100 goals and people know what they are buying “ –Ronaldo

It's not a game anymore.

Sports and entertainment are increasingly influencing our lives today more than ever before. Major companies are ratcheting up their sports marketing efforts by spending billions in sponsoring upcoming global sports events and marquee athletes in a bid to boost sales and enhance their brand image.

As a consequence, sports-marketing is emerging as a key element of integrated marketing plans, from global markets to local store marketing areas, from incentive programs to loyalty rewards, and from business-to-business strategies and consumer-product marketing. Why do McDonald's, Hanes, and Nike pay huge amounts of money to be associated with sports, and why do they choose celebrity endorsers, or buy in-stadium advertising opportunities? For both seasoned fans and casual observers, sports-marketing proves that “it's not just a game anymore”.

Sports-marketing is a vast area to discuss and is constantly evolving and changing today. In a cricket-centric sub-continent, we had more than a handful to surmount, in trying to build a fresh brand from an already-existing bouquet of relatively known sports in India, namely hockey, badminton, football, wrestling and tennis. It was akin to responding with a lift-shot to a cross- court shuttle smash hit at 200MPH. Albeit, we were confident about Indian badminton right from the start, given its glorious achievements in the past and a bright present, and a brilliant future around the corner.

I would like to start with my own brand – the Indian Badminton League and wish to share some of our experiences in building the youngest, but one of the strongest emerging sports brand globally, called the IBL.

62 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap How did Sporty Solutionz successfully market the IBL?

Saina Nehwal in cricket pads… And a tagline saying 'Is this what it takes to get your attention to badminton'. Facing initial hurdles and blues IBL managed to make its mark. The review of this ad campaign was mixed but it created a recall value. After IBL got over people still remember our outdoor campaign.

One of the easy ways to connect with fans brand or product is to do a brand endorsement. For IBL, the brand was promoted in six IBL cities in around 120 schools by the six IBL ICON Players. Around half-a-million students were able to connect with the sports as a result of our school activation programme.

There was a big buzz about badminton on the social media, arguably for the first time. The outpouring of fans' response on the IBL social and digital media platforms was simply smashing. Facebook and Twitter ran fan-based contests around the 'Shuttle Express' and the IBL. All the IBL matches (around 100 hrs of LIVE TV) were also live on YouTube and it was a miracle that the IBL site didn't crash.

The last but not the least initiative worth mentioning here, was the emotional connect that the IBL TVC struck amongst both sports aficionados and the non-sports loving community as we describe them. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was amongst the first one to express his solidarity with our 'Net Lagao Pyaar Badhao', tagline, which couldn't have been penned better by anyone else than the brilliant Prasoon Joshi.

The IBL marketing campaign ran three weeks in advance before the 18-day League took off on a six-city whirlwind tour over nine legs. It had taken us more than a year to plan and execute the IBL, but the result was out in just six days – an overflowing NSCI Stadium on the Worli Seaface in Mumbai, Lucknowites staying awake past midnight for a sporting reverie and Delhi-wallas packing the state-of-the-art DDA Badminton Stadium, built to host the 2010 CWG, revving with thousands of people on Independence Day to watch Saina vs Sindhu. The IBL brand was born!

The author is CEO, Sporty Solutionz

63 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Sports Marketing: Return on Investment – Lokesh Sharma

Return on Investment (ROI) on sports sponsorship remains an evolving science. In sports marketing, ROI for a brand is at multiple levels. For some, association with a sporting event will drive loyalty, increase consideration and deliver increased sales. For others, it generates brand goodwill and strengthens the consumer's relationship with a brand.

Sports marketing goes well beyond transactions and links to personal stories, which are shared and embraced by like-minded consumers. It entails touching an emotional chord with consumers. As an industry, sport encourages a healthy lifestyle for its participants as well as those who are inspired by their heroes and wish to follow in their footsteps. Sports branding forges a deep bond with the consumer – connecting with personalities - from who we want to be to what's appealing to us. And that connect is much deeper and stronger than any other industry.

In the last couple of decades, hockey had started to recede from India's collective consciousness to gradually becoming a memory. Realizing the need for something innovative, Hockey India in collaboration with TCM conceived the Hockey India League. HIL achieved twin objectives - it took the sport back to a large number of cities and provide opportunities to Indian players to rub shoulders with and learn from a clutch of international achievers. The results are visible in the emergence of top class internationals like Mandeep Singh and Manpreet Singh to name a few.

HIL has also focused on bringing the fans back to the sport by creating the right emotional connect. Together with its broadcast partner STAR Sports, it came up with creative campaigns that convince the viewers to invest their time in what is popularly acknowledged as India's national sport. In its second year now, it can be said without fear of contradiction that the HERO Hockey India League has taken the steps in the right direction. And this has largely been achieved by support of its partners. At each match, HERO gives away a motorcycle to a lucky fan and Airtel has a golden goal contest for spectators. YES BANK has restored the pride of the fan with its 'Garv' scheme in support of hockey.

I have deliberately chosen Hockey India League over the Indian Premier League since cricket is already a hit in India and a new product did not need to be aggressively sold to the audience.

64 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Hockey, on the contrary, not only faced a challenge from cricket but also from other sport like European Football, Formula One, American Basketball, Golf and Tennis that were beamed to our homes from around the world.

HIL's success shows that sports-marketing is not only about delivering marketing messages but about supporting events which are close to people's hearts and making them count. Come to think of it, what we are speaking about is not so much sports-marketing as passion marketing. It is not always about counting logos or logo placement since sport is a powerful marketing investment, instead marketing provides an opportunity to engage with consumers through passion and the chance to strengthen brand values.

Having said that, let me now try and share some ways in which ROI can be optimized. For any sports marketing effort to succeed, it is important to reinforce key messages so that a sports fan buys into it. It does not help to bombard the fan with myriad and diverse messages. Instead, the focus should be on a singular critical message – Star Sports' The New Face of Hockey or Hero's Phir Dil Do Hockey Ko campaigns – are good illustrations.

Sporting events get massive multi-media exposure at a time when advanced technology and social media have combined to make sports viewing a more wonderful experience than ever before. It is crucial that sports marketing teams know what they can and can't do in a particular sport eco-system for ROI to be optimized. For instance, advertisers need to keep their messages family-oriented, socially-sensitive, patriotic or even humorous. And, above all, a sport should be supported over a sustained period of time to build a strong connect with the end-consumers, instead of short-term commercial gains. Corporates who understand this reap the benefits over long and uninterrupted periods of time. Sports sponsorship is not like an advertising campaign which runs at a specific time and on a particular network. Sports events and its sponsors remain in the memories of the fans forever.

The author is MD, Twenty First Century Media

65 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Leadership in Strategic Human Resource Management – Prof. Vivek Pandey

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a distinctive approach to employment management that seeks to achieve competitive advantage through strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using a range of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.

Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) takes this approach further by mandating an explicit strategy to use the human resources of an organisation to gain competitive advantage over other sport organisations in the industry through better use of its human capital. While HRM involves policies, procedures and processes designed to influence worker attitudes and behaviour, SHRM links these processes to the aims of the organisation.

Strategy is the match or interface between an organization and its external environment or sporting culture. The important aspect to be realized here is the involvement of an organization with its related culture, where it operates and plans for the achievement of the targets set up by the organization. The basis of strategy is the assumption that an organization and its culture are of equal importance.

It is to be carefully understood that a concept of SHRM must be established on perceptions about the nature of strategic management on one side and the wage-work bargain, employee satisfaction and other socio-psychological, as well as socio-economic, aspects, on the other. The success of any sport organization may largely depend on the quality of its strategic decisions. Attracting, developing and retaining talented people can provide a sport organization with the resources it needs to prosper, grow and ultimately gain competitive advantage. The right coach, manager, CEO or player can transform the fortunes of a sport organization from bottom of the pile to world champion.

Going back to human resource management, in sport organizations, it is essentially about finding the right person for the right job at the right time and ensuring an appropriately trained and satisfied workforce. This seems quite simple – as though the HRM, along with SHRM will easily deal with various types of situations arising in different organizations. However, things are often not as simple as perceived, especially when the organizations are multifaceted and not only have a variety of services to provide to its customers, but are also answerable to the controlling bodies such as the Government or the society as a whole. The HRM, as well as SHRM, will have different perceptions about dealing with the employees or workers in both

66 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap these cases. It involves a process of continual planning and evaluation and is best viewed as part of a cycle in which an organization aims to meet its strategic goals. It is therefore both person-centered and goal directed.

It is recommended that the employees and volunteers be treated as investment assets, who, through a series of organizational practices, develop a strong psychological commitment to the organization and unique ways of working together that delivers a superior performance level. It could be made clear from this perspective that the human assets or the workers of sport organizations are of prime importance and play their role in the performance of such organizations.

Coming to the most crucial question of management or strategic management of these assets, in specific, or the organization as a whole – who is behind all this, that plays a pivotal role; or, who is the managing and motivating factor keeping all these running in the desired manner for getting the best outcomes? The person behind the planned human resource deployment has to play a crucial role, with strong psychological commitment, in order to help the organization reach its goal and deliver superior performance. The person has to maintain a balance between work-wage bargain and employees' satisfaction, to bring out the best from them and help the organization give its best. He has to play the role of a co-coordinator, a director, a partner, a guide, an expert, a role model and, sometimes, a dictator – seen quite often in coaches, like Alex Ferguson, former coach of ManU. The person playing all these roles is the leader of the organization or group, and his HRM or SHRM skills play a pivotal role in the success of the group.

Leadership involves diagnosing situations, determining what needs to be done, and marshalling collective effort sufficient to achieve a desired future or avert significant problems. Leadership sets new direction or vision that others follow; a leader is the spearhead for the new direction. The same approach can be realized in sport organizations or educational institutions – where the head of the organization takes up the responsibility of leading or controlling the various aspects of the organization, whereas the sections or departments involving different categories of employees are responsible for managing the regular functions of the institution.

Management is about: Leadership is about: Planning and Budgeting Establishing direction Control and Problem Solving Motivating and Inspiring Systems and Structures Focusing on People Coordinating Developing Organising Innovating Path following Path finding Doing things right Doing the right things

67 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Today's leadership, from the Human Resource Management and Strategic Human Resource Management viewpoint, has to look towards the process where leaders are not seen as individuals in charge of the followers but as members of a team. Result-based concepts, rather than person-based or position-based leadership, are becoming more feasible in today's scenario. In the competitive world, hard work always pays and experience is the best teacher. Strategic management has its own place when it comes to the implementation of plans. The leadership and the leader must have proper knowledge of SHRM to give the best results. Sport organizations must follow the principles of SHRM to achieve their strategic goals. The task- related and people-related behaviour of the leaders is more practical. The frontline 'doers' need not follow step-by-step instructions, and need to have more liberty and flexibility to decide and work independently in order to achieve organizational goals .

Organizations should present themselves in such a way that it becomes difficult for their competitors to match them, and their offers become the automatic choice of the customers. The meaning of strategic management is to be understood from these perspectives, so that the organizations prove themselves to be well-prepared to face the challenges of the competitive environment and give their best to the customers, as well as the stakeholders.

The key ideas behind SHRM and the success of some sport organisations are Operational Effectiveness – performing similar activities better than rivals; and Strategic Positioning – performing different activities or similar activities in different ways. Increased globalization, commercialization and accountability in the sport industry over the past few decades have led sport organizations to adopt more sophisticated management systems and become more business-oriented.

Similarities to Business

üThe last 20 years have seen a drive for sport to become more professionally structured and managed üLarge segments of sport have copied business practices and values üPaid employment of players and administrators üStrategic plans üBranding üFans/Customer service üCorporate sponsorship

68 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Inimitability of Sport

üFans who support team at the foot of table üFinancial mismanagement üTransfer fees üWealthy team owners who lose money üHigh professional salaries üLow support staff pay üVolunteers for major events üCommunity sport club organisers

In conclusion, Strategic Human Resource Management or the quality of the strategic decisions within any sport organisation can mean the difference between success and failure of that organisation.

The author is Professor at Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education

69 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Sports Infrastructure as the Key Driver for Growth in Sports – Hiren Pandit

Sports have the potential to impact the basic parameters of any Nation – be it National confidence, health or the very ideology of fair-play. Unfortunately, empirically this sector has been given little importance. Furthermore, in terms of Government set up, it is a part of neither the education sector, nor the health sector and it does not enjoy budgets that global giants receive in sport. This arcane approach to sport has ensured that India struggles as a nation when it comes to building a national competitive spirit in our youth, as well as performance at international level in Olympic sport. But sports is an industry that has huge opportunity. Major competitions are set up in 3 or 4 major team sports that vie for television presence, as well as cater to adulating fans.

We at TransStadia believe that the key to revitalizing this sector is to ensure that sporting assets – such as major stadia and sports complexes are re-structured and re-positioned to cater to India's demographic needs.

Until the 1990's, Government of India played a huge role in development of infrastructure in sectors like aviation, telecom, roads and highways, steel, oil and gas exploration etc. and then passed on the baton to private sector to take it to the next level of size and scale across the length and breadth of the Nation, creating international benchmarks in terms of penetration, development and revenue. The question that now stands is; is there an opportunity for the private sector to take over the sports infrastructure as well?

Like any other sector, the business of sports infrastructure cannot survive without a vision – A Community Vision. Forever, stadiums around the world have typically been those grandiose palaces of concrete and steel, built to last forever—even though their original purpose didn't last longer than two weeks. But the United States and Europe have shown leadership in changing this and building sports infrastructure on the back bone for the 4 fundamental pillars – Community, Legacy, Sport & Revenue. For these parameters to be realized, it becomes important to feed sports infrastructure with the right environment of talent development, competitions, technology and media to allow various sports to grow from the grassroots level to the elite level.

70 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

Core Sports Infrastructure Sports Assets Talent Development Management Athletes & Coaches

Multi-use sports Sports Infrastructure Non-Core Sports infrastructure – Technology: Improved Infrastructure A Community Center Utilisation

Media Rights Hosting Mega

Management Events / Competitions

Mixed Use Urban Development

As broadcasters, continuously reinvent media platforms that provide revolutionary sports viewing experience to engage fans from their homes, it has become important to provide fans with the 'home experience' in a stadium. It is now, more than ever, that the opportunity for Public Private Partnerships in sports infrastructure has become apparent.

Sports infrastructure needs to be developed as iconic city centers rather than white elephants that burden the system. Some State Governments such as in Gujarat, Kerala and have looked at this as a business opportunity rather than just social upliftment – as one without the other would be meaningless.

The need of the hour thus is, to develop community centers with smart-use development, coupled with stadium technology that improves utilization, to enjoy broader utilisation with predictable revenue streams. The opportunity lies in building sports infrastructure facilities as part of larger urban development schemes benefiting a wider community rather than just sports fans. Stadiums alone may not be an attractive investment option for the private sector but potentially higher returns can be secured from commercial, entertainment, hospitality and other revenue generating development surrounding the core sports infrastructure thus allowing sport to take its time to develop to a sustainable level without hurting the investment returns of the sponsors.

The author is COO, SE TransStadia Pvt. Ltd.

71 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap Changing Dynamics in Sports Broadcast in India – Prasanna Krishnan

While cricket still dominates the Indian sports landscape, India has been progressively moving towards active embracement of other sports in recent years. The coming years may see India emerging as a powerhouse in many such sports and the country's sports-broadcasters have been at the forefront of this process.

The Indian viewer today is being serviced by over 10 dedicated sports channels that ensure all events of consequence in most major sports across the world are being provided to consumers. A number of these are powered completely by sports other than cricket a trend that was unimaginable a few years ago. In addition to this, the broadcasters are also actively promoting and supporting local sports leagues in various sports such as cricket, football, tennis, badminton, hockey, golf, etc thereby providing opportunities to experience live sports up-close and enable sports to emerge as a viable career alternative.

The Indian viewer today has more choices than most of his counterparts in other countries and the entire service is reaching him at less than 5% of costs in other countries (including most developing nations).

I believe that the sector is poised for more activity, innovation and evolution in the coming years which would transform the sports consumption experience of fans. There has already been considerable investment in regional language feeds in recent years and this is likely to increase further into more languages. Live sports on internet and mobile devices have seen large investments and are poised for significant growth in the coming years. All these promise significantly greater interactivity, connect and flexibility to sports fans.

These developments have been enabled and supported by factors such as advent of DTH sector, onset of cable digitization and rapid strides in mobile penetration. But it is important to stress here that a lot still needs to be done. This enhanced service to consumers has not been supported by any perceptible change in pricing in the last decade. And the broadcasters are still to see the full financial benefits of digitization and addressability in cable.

Also support of other stakeholders has not kept pace with the commitment by sports broadcasters. As a result, there is threat to sustainability of such investments and maintaining this pace of growth. The broadcasting sector, which has borne the brunt of rapidly escalating

72 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap content costs and inadequate monetization opportunities, would need the support of everyone including Government, sports federations, corporates, distribution partners and consumers in this process.

I remain very optimistic on the growth opportunities in sports and believe that the pace of development would accelerate even further in the coming years and hope that the sector gets the support it needs from all stakeholders to achieve sustainable profitability while continuing to delight the sports fan in the country.

The author is Business Head, Sony Six

73 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

6. Roadmap for Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure Roadmap for Development of 6 Sports & Sports Infrastructure

Excellence in sports, bolsters National pride and patriotism, and fosters cultural harmony. Sports sector is developing in India with Government schemes now gearing towards promoting capacity building and creation of infrastructure. India as a nation is highly motivated towards achieving eminence in the international sports arena. Institutional reforms coupled with strong corporate and community support can propel the development of sports in the country:

üDeveloping better co-ordination between different departments of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, the Centre and the State Sports Departments to expedite the overall process of Sports Management in the country and solve the issue of demand supply mismatch with respect to training facilities, trained sportsperson and available infrastructure.

üIncreased budgetary allocation for sports development by the States and the Centre: The investment made by most States in sports has been negligible. An increase in State budgetary allocation towards sports is required to provide universal and barrier- free access and to create a national sports culture. Moreover, besides State allocation for sports, the budgetary allocation for Sports at the National level has to increase after priorities for Sports Infrastructure Development have been defined. India has only allocated 0.32% in 2010-11, which incidentally was the year of Commonwealth Games. Comparing it with the allocation of 2011-12, it has disastrously gone down to 0.09%.

üRecognizing sports sector as an Industry: Industry status will allow the private sector to gain from options related to Prioritize, and allocate financing available to the private sector. The private sector resources and companies will be able to raise funds from debt and equity performance support markets apart from banks and financial institutes. to individuals / teams having greatest üMove towards a PPP framework: Public Private chance of winning Partnership should be looked upon as a viable option to medals provide the necessary support and capital outlay required to meet the State welfare responsibilities, and budgeting for them in their forecasts. An effective policy can also successfully direct the current focus of private sector on a few major sports and provide initiative for them to broad-base the investment. Besides moving towards a PPP framework, efforts should be made to assist the private partners in procuring the necessary land on ownership or lease basis.

76 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap üThere is an urgent need to recognize the importance of tourism as an economic spin-off in the development of sports in the country and leveraging sports for national economic development by encouraging sports tourism, including adventure sports in the country, in close association with State Governments, agencies and NGOs promoting adventure sports such as rock climbing, rafting, snow skiing, paragliding, rappelling, trekking, sea exploration, scuba diving, snorkeling and wild life safaris.

üRole of Sports Talent Management And Execution Committee (STMEC)

1) Identification of High Impact Sports / Medal winning Disciplines

Disciplines such as Shooting, wrestling and boxing have not only been competing well but have provided medals for India in the last three Olympic Games. Identifying sports disciplines as a thrust area for excellence and focused interventions such as establishing new high performance leadership and coaching structure for high impact sports can ensure sustained success in Olympics 2016, 2020 and beyond.

2) Identification of Regions for Sports Excellence

Developing indigenous talent, with identification of regions for sports excellence in various disciplines would help discovering the best sports talents in the region and transform them into world class athletes thereby creating a stronger sports culture.

3) Identification of Talent

üIdentify promising student-athletes through State associations or federations and develop them into Olympic champions.

üIncorporate systems to identify and nurture talent through timed events. Ensure communities are well aware of such efforts, to be able to effectively channelize talented pupils from school to Develop Regional international platforms. sports center excelling in popular üLocal clubs with qualified coaches should assist school sports for instance teachers to identify and monitor talented children. Football is popular in Kerala, , üStudent athletes should be directed to elite schools/ and the academies which have the expertise and facilities to nurture Northeast young talent.

77 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap 4) Training and Execution

A Committee to undertake the following task:

üRope in former sportsperson of repute – International performers, record holders and national awardees.

üExperts in the various sports disciplines and support specialists in the field of health, nutrition, equipment and Emphasis on right gear. training programme will play an important role in üFormer/Current Coaches – Identify and enlist former, turning grassroots current and foreign coaches of proven ability in various talents into world sports disciplines. champions

üForging partnerships with international education institutes may prove instrumental in developing indigenous talent – both players as well as trainers.

üReview high level coaches and their deployment.

üAssessor training for local coaches and apprentice schemes at various levels – district, national and international for potential coaches.

üProvide management support to clubs, committees and federations

Works Cited

National Skill Development Corporation. (2012). Skill Gap Study for Sports. New Delhi: National Skill Development Corporation.

78 Development of Sports & Sports Infrastructure: A Roadmap

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