“Corporate India has failed sport,” said Adille Sumariwalla, the president of the Athletics Federation of India. He cited examples. “How many corporate houses, except a few like the Tata (Group), have been supporting sport? I’m not talking about cricket. But in other sport, if they are doing it they are supporting the top athletes.”
Sumariwalla stressed that going beyond the crème de la crème, sport needs corporate support at grassroots.
The discourse set up the second session of the RevSportz Trailblazers 3.0 Conclave that was moderated by RevSportz’s co-founder and COO Sharmistha Gooptu. Other than Sumariwalla, the panel had Jaswinder Sodhi, head of marketing, digital and customer propositions, international wealth and premier banking, HSBC India; Anil Singh, managing director, Procam International; Prof. Vijay Pereira, director, Kedge Business School, Vijaybhoomi University; and Sanjiv Navangul, MD & CEO, Bharat Serum and Vaccines Limited.
The session was titled: Corporate India and Sport – Towards Making India A Sporting Power With An Eye on 2036.
Sodhi said: “Adille is partially right. Support is needed at grassroots level. One area where India has consistently failed is not having adequate facilities.”
Prof. Pereira put things in perspective: “What countries do with regards to sport has a strong correlation with their economy. The investment of France (in sport), for example, in comparison to India is huge. They take sports seriously. It takes time. Sometimes generations. The more developed the country, the more money is spent on sport, health and education.”
Navangul said: “I’m not suggesting any gender bias. But we want to promote healthy women and a healthy country, and more women in sport.”
Singh envisioned a brighter future: “Things are changing rapidly. We speak about the corporate sector not coming forward to support sport adequately. But there are so many factors attached. Rs 1,000 crore is spent on running today.”
Overall, through a healthy debate, views and counter-views, it was an enjoyable session.