Three decades ago, Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli made history when they scored a 664-run partnership during the Harris Shield tournament at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. However, it took over a month of scanning through scoresheets and the persistent efforts of umpire Marcus Couto for the world to realise that the 664-run stand was a record partnership in any class of cricket. And then it finally made its way to the Guinness Book of World Records and Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
But this task is no longer tedious or time-consuming thanks to a tie-up in 2017 between the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) and KheloMore, a digital platform in the sports industry. Live scoring, video analysis of matches, online tournament schedules are now available. Parents can check to see how their child’s team fared, and even scouts can keep tabs on a player’s progress. This is just the tip of the iceberg; there is plenty more happening in the sports arena.
India is no longer a “cricket only” nation. Other sports like hockey, football, badminton, wrestling, volleyball, kabaddi and biking have also come into the limelight.
Sports management is a broad sphere and covers several different areas related to the sports industry. Due to the growth in this industry, institutes have started offering specialised courses in sports management at undergraduate and postgraduate levels . The International Institute of Sports Management (IISM), National Academy of Sports Management (NASM), Ironwood Sports Management Global Academy, (ISMGA), George College and Symbiosis School of Sports Science are some colleges that offer these courses. Most of these colleges have a short admission test, and some have an interview as well.
Sports management firms visit these institutes and hire for roles such as venue manager, marketing associate, sports agent, sports analytics associate, assistant athlete manager. “Some of the companies that come for placement to our institutes are PMG, Procam, JSW Sports, Youtoocanrun, SportzInteractive, Sportskeeda, KheloMore, Rhiti Sports, Redbull India, NBA India, Star Sports, Sportzvillage,” says Sandesh Pandav, programme manager, ISMGA.
IISM established an entrepreneurship cell when they found several students opting to become entrepreneurs in the sports industry over the last few years. “If these aspiring entrepreneurs establish themselves, they will create employment opportunities,” believes Nilesh Kulkarni, founder-director of IISM. The growing popularity of sports management has led to even the IIMs jumping into the fray. IIM Rohtak introduced a postgraduate programme in sports management in 2018.
Some choose to study sports management abroad. According to the World QS Ranking, the top five universities are in the UK, Australia and Canada — Loughborough in the UK, the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney in Australia, the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto in Canada. The US, too, has some good colleges for sports management.
Apart from getting a degree in sports management, there are other routes to get into this field.
Many industry experts agree that internships and industry exposure is essential for sports management aspirants. “They get a deeper understanding about the industry and if they want to pursue a career in it at all. And yes, there are quite a few internship opportunities — we hire interns as well for our company,” says Parminder Gill, a co-founder of Sportz Village, the world’s largest youth sports platform.
Students can get into sports management by doing a generic course as well in their graduation, say, in business management, data science, media or even engineering. They should connect with people in the sports industry and gain experience by doing a couple of internships while studying. Armed with their degree and internship experience, they can start working. If required, they can do a specialisation too — a master’s degree in sports management — after a few years,” says Abhishek Sharma, CEO and founder of Athletes Today, a firm that is into areas such as player representation, sports marketing sponsorships and grassroots development.
Mad About Sports is an educational technology platform started by Aditya Goenka, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus. They hope to increase awareness of the sports
industry and career options through programmes and workshops. They offer workshops on sports analytics (cricket and football), performance and video analytics, sports management, and sports media and journalism.
Says Goenka, “Students or professionals from any background can enrol for our programmes. They learn how to do match-ups, for example, whether you should send AB de Villiers to bat when Bhumra is at the other end. Analytics can be used for different purposes. It can be used to calculate the price of tickets for maximum possible revenue, increase player performance, choose the best line up for your upcoming match.”
Career options
Team manager
Marketing manager
Sports agent
Sports psychologist
Sports data analyst
Grassroots development
Sports lawyer
Sports journalist
Sports medicine
Sports and exercise science
