Business of Sports : Shaping a Successful Innings for the Indian Sports Industry

Sports has been a force for good ever since humanity existed. It brings people together, catalyses cultural and societal change, encourages free spirit, instils discipline and significantly enough, teaches people to win and lose. History corroborates all the above - Jesse Owens winning those gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympic games thereby becoming a symbol of equality, Muhammad Ali winning the world heavyweight championship in 1964 at the age of 22 thereby redefining tenacity, to Sachin Tendulkar epitomising the values of an average middle class and many others. Intrinsically, the importance of sports too has been in promoting an active healthy lifestyle, creating a culture of sportsmanship and team spirit and helping in the overall development of an individual. To a nation, however, promoting sports brings in the spirit of the game, the national pride, a sense of social inclusiveness and of course employment opportunities. With increased government spending on local and global sports events and Indian athletes winning international acclaim, sports seems to be on a steady footing but there is still lots that needs to be done.