Sunday, March 30, 2014

SPORTS SPECIAL................... DESI SLAM DUNK


DESI SLAM DUNK

    After cricket, which is India’s most popular game? It isn’t hockey anymore, not after the decline of the sport over the past couple of decades. Football’s popularity is rising but more because audiences are getting a taste of the best of the beautiful game globally and not because India is moving anywhere up the rankings.
    Against such a backdrop, when an Indian-American moneybags who co-owns a basketball team in the hallowed National Basketball Association (NBA) declares that he would like basketball to become India’s No. 2 sport of choice, it doesn’t sound that unreasonable. Vivek Ranadive, a Silicon Valley IT millionaire, who bought Sacramento Kings a year ago along with a group of investors, has set his sights on the growing fan and player base of the game in India and other Asian markets.
    Mumbai-born Ranadive — who earlier this week was nominated for Street & Smith’s Sports Executive of the Year award back in the US — believes that having proved their mettle in technology in the US, Indian-American infotech entrepreneurs should now set the ball rolling in sports and entertainment. “I’m a huge sports fan and firmly believe that basketball will be the game of this century since it has great appeal with the spectators,” Ranadive had told ET Magazine in an earlier interview. Like most Indian-Americans of his generation, 55-year-old Ranadive is a big cricket fan and had never really played basketball — till he had to coach his daughter Anjali and her basketball team of 12-year-old girls for the National Junior Basketball championship or America’s Little League some years ago.
Mission India
“I see a great deal of interest in the sport among young Indian-Americans. Besides, Indians in India can also excel in basketball considering that it’s a game that doesn’t require very large resources for training. It’s a global sport and will provide the right brand value for India to take a seat at the world table,” Ranadive said.
    Backing him in his India foray is the NBA, the top professional basketball league of North America to which Sacramento Kings belongs. NBA, which has over $5.5 billion in annual revenues and 30 franchised member clubs in North America, is now looking at India as its next big market.
    “Our plan is to increase participation among youth. Basketball is simple to play, requires very little space and infrastructure, and is played by both boys and girls. Also, the format of the game makes it fun and exciting to watch,” says Yannick Colaco, MD, NBA India, which has had operations for four years and recently increased activities at the grassroots to build the NBA brand in the country.
    While NBA India is focused on expanding access to NBA games in America through TV, digital and social media, more than 500 local events have also been held in different cities across the country. “We have a television partnership with Sony SIX and our social media following has grown almost 500% over the past two seasons, with India now the No. 5 country following the NBA on Twitter outside the US,” Colaco adds. At the grassroots, NBA India runs Reliance Foundation Jr NBA, which works with schools in spurring kids to play, and NBA Jam, a multicity, college-centric, entertainment event centred around basketball. In the first year, Reliance Foundation Jr NBA has engaged with over 140,000 children and trained 300 physical education teachers, across 220 partner schools in Mumbai and Kerala.
Ranadive Assist
NBA India is also hoping to cash in on the fact that Ranadive and Sacramento Kings are looking at opportunities in India. “It’s great to have Mr Ranadive become the principal owner of the Kings. He has been aggressive in building the best possible team for the Sacramento community and has also talked about the fantastic opportunity for the game here in India. We look forward to continuing working with him and the Kings to grow the league and the game,” Colaco says.
    It’s not surprising that India is on the radar of the Kings and its chairman Ranadive in a big way. After taking over the Kings in May last year, Ranadive had spoken about his team “helping make basketball a household word in India”, in an interview with the Sacramento Bee. The team’s last season opener was broadcast live in India. “It was a huge hit. While cricket will be No. 1 in the hearts of Indian fans, basketball can become a strong No. 2,” he added in the interview to Sacramento Bee.
    This year the team management is looking at a bigger engagement with India. “We will partner with NBA India and even though playing an actual game in India may not happen very soon, we’re finalizing a visit of Mr Ranadive along with the NBA commissioner Adam Silver to India in the next few months,” Chris Granger, president of Sacramento Kings told ET Magazine on phone from Sacramento. He feels that the strong partnership between NBA India and the Indian-American owner of the team will definitely help the outreach in the country.
    “The Indian connection is very strong and last season there were 22 of our matches that were broadcast in India. We have also built up a strong connect with the techie Indian community in Silicon Valley not only because of Mr Ranadive’s Indian roots but also through some of our innovative hi-tech marketing tie-ups such as with Google Glass,” he added. Besides Ranadive, another Indian American Raj Bhathal, founder of Raj Manufacturing, one of the largest swimwear companies in the US, is also an investor in the consortium which bought the majority stake in Kings in May 2013.
Taco Time
Meanwhile, as part of Ranadive’s new business philosophy, which focuses on investments in technology, globalization and community partnerships for the Kings, the team has entered into a long-term sponsorship deal with Jimboy’s Tacos, a Mexican fast food restaurant chain and Krrish Group, a Gurgaon-based real estate player and liquor manufacturing company. Krrish Group is the owner of Krrish Delhi Smashers, the Delhi franchise in the inaugural Indian Badminton League.
    To start with, the Krrish Group, as master franchisee of Jimboy’s Tacos, will launch the chain in India this year. “We recognize the immense potential of F&B and sports in India. With our partnership with the Sacramento Kings, we would like to combine restaurants and sports and come up with unique concepts which will not only have mass appeal but great utility as well,” says Prakhar Gupta, vice-president, business development, Krrish Group. The first Jimboy’s outlet is likely to open in the NCR by September 2014 and in the next two years 7-10 are planned across India.
    Not surprisingly basketball will be a major theme in these outlets. Jimboy’s Tacos also hopes to leverage its relationship with Sacramento Kings for growing business in India. “It has been very positive for us being associated with the Sacramento Kings, and it is a great marketing and business relationship. We are sure it will be the same here in India,” says Michael Freeman, director, marketing and business development, Jimboy’s North America.
    The ownership of a basketball team by an Indian-American opens up a lot of opportunities for the game in the country. “With an Indian owner, Sacramento Kings could definitely become a favourite team of basketball fans here, and there’s already a lot of interest in NBA games on TV,” says sports writer and blogger Karan Madhok.
    According to Twitter statistics, NBA has a fan following of half a million in India, with serious efforts being made by NBA to further increase the league’s fan base here. Basketball TV viewership too has been growing in India, with 23 million viewers having sampled NBA content in the first 11 weeks of the current season, 8 million of whom were women viewers, as per data from Sony SIX.
Youth Factor
The fact that NBA, one of the world’s richest sports leagues, is ramping up operations in India has also led to a rise in interest in the sport among broadcasters and private sector players. “Basketball is one of the two sports, the other being football, that IMG-Reliance [a joint venture that is investing is sports properties in India] has adopted in India having signed a 30-year deal with BFI [Basketball Federation of India] in 2010 for commercial rights of the sport. This could translate into an IPL-style professional league and help grassroots-level development of the sport,” says Jaideep Ghosh, partner, KPMG India, a consultancy.
    BFI, the official controlling body of the game in the country, too is upbeat about the opportunities and the interest that NBA is showing in growing Indian basketball. “Basketball is the second largest sport in the world behind football. There is a lot of outside interest in how the game develops in India,” says a BFI spokesperson. Amongst many others watching keenly is the chairman of the Sacremento Kings.

RANADIVE ON A ROLL NOVEMBER 2010
Ranadive becomes the first Indian to co-own an NBA team in the US — he is a part of a consortium to buy Californiabased Golden State Warriors
APRIL 2013
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wants to buy Sacramento Kings and move it to Seattle. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson approaches Ranadive, who leads a group of investors to outbid Ballmer, paying over $500 million
Ranadive plans to transform the franchise into a global brand and
extend the NBA’s reach into China and India
OCTOBER 2013
Sacramento Kings launches a section on the team’s website dedicated to a rapidly growing Hindi-speaking fan base
DECEMBER 2013
Ranadive launches his vision statement NBA 3.0. He hopes to revolutionize entertainment and the NBA and sees his team as the poster child for the use of big data in the game

…AND RIDING WITH THE KINGS
Jimboy’s Tacos, a Mexican fast food company in the US and the long-term sponsor of Sacramento Kings, has tied up with real estate player Krrish Group to bring Jimboy’s Tacos brand to India
Under the agreement, along with Jimboy’s Tacos Krrish has become a joint sponsor of Sacramento Kings,
and the first Indian business house to invest in the NBA


JAMMING WITH THE NBA…
NBA and Sony SIX have partnered to launch NBA Jam in India, the largest college basketball and entertainment festival in the country
The 2013 NBA Jam travelled to Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai
Over 1,000 teams registered to be part of the event in 2013 with 500 teams receiving the chance to participate in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament
In October 2013, the Reliance Foundation and NBA announced a multi-year partnership to launch a school-based youth basketball programme in India

Ishani Duttagupta ETM1340323

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