Basketball Grabbing the Opportunity When its Ripe

By Ayaz Memon

More good news this week. I attended two sports seminars at two media institutes last week in Pune and basketball featured among the top three sports that the students believed had a great future in India. The fact that it could be played without great cost was the strongest factor in its favour, but there were ample voices which spoke of the ``excitement of the sport.’’ I would like to deduce that the coverage of the NBA is gaining ground in India.

Obviously basketball is going to compete with some other sports in the future, as I have been maintaining in my earlier columns. Soccer featured very high on the chart of favourites (as did, surprisingly, track and field) for the students and an instant recall exercise resulted in names of players participating in the EPL coming out on top. The penetration of cable television is growing rapidly in a country which is on the fast track of economic development, and global mega events like the EPL and NBA are going to be obvious beneficiaries.

Equally heartening, and perhaps more important in the Indian context, is the growing indulgence of the corporate sector towards sport. The player auction for the third season of the IPL got mired in controversy when cricketers from Pakistan were ignored, but nevertheless there was no evidence that the interest or the cash flow of the franchises was dulling. If anything, all eight franchises of the IPL are going full steam ahead with creating pipelines for talent to flow in through academies and the like. For good measure, I might add, the IPL has already announced its expansion plans for season four which will see the introduction of two more teams – and at a considerably higher cost than when the league started in 2008.

There is more evidence that business houses are beginning to see sports as viable investment – either in pursuit of corporate social responsibility or in a balance sheet. MahindraSatyam, for instance, has shown interest in World Cup soccer (the parent company Mahindra and Mahindra has supported the game at the grassroots and senior levels for decades) and this could be the forerunner of other initiatives from the IT sector which has otherwise stayed away from sports.

To accentuate the growing awareness and opportunities available through sport, India is also becoming the destination for sports summits which was unthinkable even say two years ago. In March this year itself are scheduled the India International Sports Summit (IISS) in Mumbai and the Commonwealth Games Summit in Delhi. The fact that the hugely popular IPL is being played at the same time is not seen as a deterrent. I am on the advisory board of the IISS and can vouch that there has been high participatory interest shown as yet in the summit from the government and bureaucracy, from the corporate sector, and from sportspersons – not forgetting those from overseas who see potential and opportunities in India for further their own business/initiatives.

The point I am trying to make, as I have done right through the past couple of months, is that the environment in India is ripe for the plucking where sports is concerned. If there had to be a sports revolution, it had to happen holistically, with all segments of society involved. I can see that happening now as the government, business houses, and perhaps most crucially, ordinary people start seeing sports as not merely a pastime, but imperative in the making of a strong, vibrant nation.

That should inspire all those who want to expand their footprint of influence. And as I mentioned at the start of this article, basketball may have an early advantage because the young people in India are already seeing it as a cool sport. I hope the NBA is tuned in.