Slam Dunk, Anyone?

• IMG-Reliance sign 30-year deal with Basketball Federation of India
• Mahindra join BFI and NBA to promote the game at grassroots level, hold community-level events
• NBA initiated market research in 2006; success of IPL convinced people would flock to a sports-entertainment project
• In NBA 20 per cent players are non-American. Now it aims to have an Indian player.
• In the long-term NBA and IMG-Reliance look to monetise basketball if growth occurs

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An Indian playing in the NBA? Well, a Red Indian would be a more likely bet. After all, the Indian men’s team is ranked 52nd in the world and the country isn’t exactly bursting with potential Michael Jordans. Yes, basketball exists in India, but only in the consciousness of those who actually play or organise it, or in pockets of urban India that spend time following the NBA on the tube. Ask the average Indian sports fan the name of one top Indian basketball player, and it’s more than likely that there’ll be blank stares all around.

Yet, an American dream of success in this near-anonymous sport is being sown assiduously across India, by the very same NBA along with a few Indian corporate houses. Quietly, almost imperceptibly, Indian basketball seems poised for an unlikely boom. Consider this:

• The National Basketball Association of the United States, more famous by its shorter handle, NBA, has a project director stationed in India, with the aim of promoting basketball in the country, training players and coaches, identifying talent and, hopefully, getting an Indian playing in the NBA one day.
• Reliance Industries and sports marketing and media firm IMG have signed a deal with the Indian Basketball Association to market and develop the sport in India. Reliance is very serious about it, as evidenced by the duration of the deal, 30 years, a length of time unheard of in Indian sports ventures and sponsorship.
• Mahindra Industries, which has taken its focus off professional sports (earlier this year, it announced that it’s going to disband its football club), is now into promoting basketball through a community programme. Beginning with Mumbai, Bangalore and Ludhiana, it aims to add one or two cities every year, hoping to take the number of cities covered to 10 in five years.

All this might come as a surprise. So will the fact that the NBA and corporate India are planning world-class courts, providing top-flight training, and kicking off catch-them-young initiatives at the school level—especially as the sport is not even among the top five domestic sports. That’s a number the NBA and the Basketball Federation of India wishes to correct. They’re not looking to be No. 1, for cricket is untouchable, but would be content to be No. 2 in India, in 5-10 years.

But why this fuss about poor old Indian basketball? From the NBA’s perspective, it makes great business sense to develop its franchise in a growing economic market. This, says Akash Jain, director of International Development at NBA, helps the sport of basketball to flourish across the world—and with it, the NBA too flourishes.

So it’s not altogether an altruistic venture. Some may go as far as calling it imperialism via sport. But for a sport and a bunch of sportspersons completely lacking big sponsorship money, it’s a lifeline. Amateurs playing in the Mahindra-NBA Challenge in Bangalore this week were cock-a-hoop at the possibilities. As Jain puts it, “India has talented players, and always had. But now they have the opportunity to make a big move in international basketball.”

The time is now, Jain believes, because urban Indians are ready to accept sport as entertainment. And basketball’s short duration helps. “We had been exploring the market, but the IPL model convinced us,” he says. “Sport as evening entertainment, like going to the movies, is something the IPL learnt from us. We’ve been doing it for decades in the US. Now, with people coming in for the evening entertainment at the IPL in large numbers, we are sure they’ll come in for an evening of basketball too.”

Jain is confident basketball can be next to cricket on the domestic scene in India. He cites the example of China, where basketball is now the top sport, with 300 million people playing the game. When China began a shift away from conservative communism in the 1980s, the NBA took note. “The NBA went to China in the mid ’80s, and it’s taken basketball 25 years to be the No. 1 sport there,” Jain says. “In India, we can be No. 2 much faster than that.”

NBA Mahindra Challenge event in Bangalore (Photograph by Nilotpal Baruah)

There are two reasons behind this confidence. One, basketball already exists as a sport in India. Two, the media boom which delivers the NBA’s content. “That’s why we’re so excited about the prospects. The explosion of the media—TV, internet, mobile telephones—gives us the ability to deliver our content to the widest possible audiences. We’re here to promote basketball, and also to monetise and market it.”

There’s also a third unstated reason: the NBA needs to look for global markets because TV ratings in the US have steadily declined after a peak in 1997-98 season, hitting a nadir in 2002-03. This year, ratings hit a 12-year high, but they are still lower than Major League Baseball’s.

Interestingly, an affinity for basketball exists right at the top management at both Reliance and Mahindra. Jain says Anand Mahindra, MD of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, is passionate about the sport, having seen its popularity in the US. At Reliance, Mukesh and Nita Ambani are taking a personal interest. “I think we’re entering a defining phase of development of sports and talent in the country and IMG-Reliance is keen to play its part in this,” says Nita Ambani, a member on the board.

Mahindra’s Ruzbeh Irani says they want to take the sport to the grassroots in India. “Our objective is clear...we want to promote the sport at the community level,” Irani says. “We want to encourage sports participation among people, families, in neighbourhoods. A very welcome byproduct of this is the increase in awareness about our brand.”

A stated goal of IMG-Reliance is to build infrastructure for the sport. “The lack of infrastructure means India’s ability to do well in international sport is undermined,” says IMG’s Andrew Wildblood, also on the board of IMG-Reliance. “But now sport is beginning to move up on the political and parental agenda, and I think more Indians will take achievement in sport more seriously.”

He says right now only cricket has a proper structure for training and participating in the country; IMG-Reliance hopes to develop infrastructure for other sports so that sportspersons can fully exploit their potential. The partnership, to begin with, doesn’t foresee or expect commercial profits, though Wildblood does talk about the possibility. “While there’s an element of altruism in the mission of Mr and Mrs Ambani and Reliance, ultimately we’re in the business of sport,” he adds. “If we’re successful over a period of time, we could create commercial opportunities.”

He likens it to digging an oil well. “The upfront costs are very significant if you want to drill for oil,” he says. “So you have to be prepared to make significant investments before the returns start to flow. We’re simply applying those business principles to sport. In the process, we’ll give Indian athletes and India itself benefits that successful sports events and sports people can deliver.”

Harish Sharma, secretary, Indian Basketball Association, is only too happy with the advent of sponsors; the ultimate objectives of big businesses are incidental, even immaterial. “Right now, they can’t make any money,” he tells Outlook. “And for us, there’s practically no money in sponsorship. Now with these investors coming in, our objective is that hoopsters should grow in stature, that they get recognised on the streets.”

What about the view in some circles that the bfi could lose control of the game if big business is allowed in? “As long as the game is promoted, I don’t care,” he says, and cites the example of eight young players joining the IMG basketball academy in the US as a sign of things to come. “Businesses help sports to grow, and they also gain with the association. The players will also gain, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

For former player Troy Justice, who heads the NBA’s operations in India, it’s just about making the sport he loves more popular. “I’ve seen talented players, who could play in a high school team in the US, but putting an Indian in the NBA is the ultimate objective,” Justice tells Outlook. “Indian players have strong minds, and they’re fearless. I have friends who coach universities in the US, and I’ll try to arrange scholarships for talented young Indian players to universities in the US.” The goal, he adds, is the NBA: “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

That, when it does happen, will impart a kiss of life to Indian basketball—and spell good business for its new benefactors.