Reclaim that Sporting Glory, Mumbai!

9 Sep 2022
Dhananjay Deshmukh (Mumbai Sports)
Reclaim that Sporting Glory, Mumbai!

“It is believed that economic and political state of any city is reflected in its sports also”.
It was a typical sultry summer evening in March this year. Bunts Sangh Hall in Kurla was busy witnessing vibrant exchange of thoughts by some celebrated sportspersons’ from of yesteryears. The event was organised by “Mumbai Sports” – a not for profit setup of sportspersons – aiming to develop sporting culture in Mumbai and contribute to the efforts to bring back the sporting glory - With the motto of “Milun Saare मिळून सारे  (together we all)”.

The hall was full of yesteryears top performers– like Mumbai’s fastest man of his time, sprinter Adille Sumariwala, former hockey players – M.M. Somaya, Mervyn Fernandes, Joaquim Carvahlo, kabaddi players like Jaya Shetty, Taekwondo champion Namdeo Shirgaonkar, mix martial art champion Sharif Bapu, mallkhamb specialist Uday Deshpande, badminton champion Pradeep Gandhe, first Indian to win the Commonwealth Chess Championship Pravin Thipsay, arjuna awardee table tennis player Kamlesh Mehta and several other players and sports organisations.

There were several Olympic medal winners, Olympians, arjuna and Shiv Chhatrapati awardees. Apart from them, several dignitaries from sporting field (including administration) like Arvind (Dada) Prabhoo of the Prabodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul (PTKS), Jay Kowli of MCBA, Arun Kedar (carrom).

The think-tank is blessed to patronage of "ever-young" Sh. Madhukarao Talwalkar, who is called as "bhishmacharya" of of Indian Bodybuilding

Despite of different sports stream, age groups and (may be working styles), it was a wonderful sight to see the heartfelt exchanges by these stars. While the energy was palpable, the thoughts and ideas for restoring Mumbai’s sporting pride were even more intense. However, a subtle observation was that all the Olympians present in the hall were either 60 years old or close to that. This observation conveys a strong message that in the past 3 decades Mumbai’s participation in the Olympics drastically reduced – forget an Olympic medal! This summed up the story of the night!

Mumbai, the city of million dreams…
Mumbai, the richest municipal corporation in Asia, a populous of over 20 million, financial capital of India and hub for entertainment. The city of dreams, Mumbai once was known for its sporting prowess - excluding cricket. No doubt the city had prominence in cricket – by virtue of its dominance in domestic cricket, and number of players in the national team. That citadel started to crumble since the beginning of this millennium (2000).

While many factors could have contributed to the downfall of the city’s performance at highest levels in respective sports (except cricket), a few emerge boldly are lack of sporting culture, and of sports infrastructure. The city of Greater Mumbai, is divided into administrative divisions - Mumbai City District (MCD) and Mumbai Suburban District (MSD). The city is divided in 

• 5 administrative zones (Each zone has 3-5 wards)
• There are 24 administrative wards in Mumbai
• MCD - 9 wards (A to G North)
• MSD - 15 wards (H East to T)
• MCD has apprx 16% of the total land area, apprx 27% of population
• MSD has remaining 84% land area and 73% of populator
• MSD is further divided in three sectors
• Suburban District - South (harbor line)
• Suburban District – NorthWest (western line)
• Suburban District – NorthEast (central line)

Most of the geographical and demographical changes, and improvements are happening in MSD, hence it is paramount to improve sporting culture and sports infrastructure in MSD for the aspirational population.

Create "Smart Infrastructure"
Despite of presence of target segments (people ready to spend on sports activities), desire to succeed, the city’s sports infrastructure is way behind what it should be. It could be due to certain limitations – like space. However, this can be addressed by smart planning and scheduling. The city can consider adopting the 'Health Stadia Concept' from Europe, which uses sports stadia as the place where people can visit to have a positive, healthy experience playing or watching sport.

Sports Ecosystem
Sports ecosystem consists of sports, sports infra, talent identification, sports economy, coaching and competition structure. Sports Infrastructure is one of important entities of the sports ecosystem. Rather it is the key to the success of the entire ecosystem. It is an important indicator for understanding the sports delivery provisions and welfare mechanism in a country. Key Components of SI that are critical to development of sports culture and its activities are
• Policy framework
• Financial Assistance
• Playgrounds / centres / facilities
• Dedicated sports workforce, 
• Information and data systems, and 

What infrastructure is needed for developing sports culture?

Physical Infra

• Open Fields – for outdoor games like football, hockey, athletics track, tennis, archery, javelin
• Domes – for indoor games like basketball, kabaddi, shooting, gymnastics, table tennis, wrestling, mallkhamb, skating, archery, gymnasium, boxing
• Swimming pools

Human Infra of

• Ever growing Pool of players
• Certified coaches
• Certified referees
• Talent scouts

Material Infra - for Equipment’s for Gymnasium, shooting rifles, tables, courts

Educational Infra for

• Technical Assistance for Sports Analytics
• Psychological training and mental fitness
• Mentoring and Career guidance
• Sports Management

Medical Infra for

• Sports injuries and recovery
• Nutritional and dietary.

Commercial Infra for

• Development of sports facilities
• Organising events
• Promotion of events
• Financial Assistance playing and non-playing periods
• Sports Management firms

Governance Infra for

• Enabling Policy Guidelines
• Financial Budget
• Seamless communication across all government agencies and private entities
• Single window Clearances
• Land and other material support
• Database of all stakeholders.

What type of Sports Infrastructure is suitable in Mumbai?

• A sustainable infrastructure that is Providing support for maximum number of sports (for normal and disabled)
• Decentralized – across all wards (electoral 227 or zonal wards) – one multi-disciplinary centre within 3-5 kms radius or rather a 20 minute drive
• Modern and Scalable – that can be re-modelled into space for expositions, in normal times
• Safe and secure (especially for children and women)
• Moderate to Less “lead time” to reach
• Resistant to all natural and man-made calamities or incidents
• Fire
• Rain / Floods
• Earthquake
• Can be accessed by all state and national sports setups.

How to ramp up Sports Infrastructure in Mumbai?

• Enhance sporting culture
• PPP model can work – depending on availability of land / building
• Rope in public, private organizations for
• Land and Building
• Equipment's
• Manpower Supply
• Affordable Medicines and Equipment's
• Invite Start-Ups (Sports and Non-Sports) for
• Creating awareness
• Communication development
• Engagement with public and corporates
• Celebrate Success.

Sustainability is the Key
Given the cost and other investments, it is paramount to see that the infrastructure is self-servicing in terms of its costs.

Gradation and Periodic Evaluation
Each sports centre can be assigned a star grade according to availability of elements – this will give scope for improvement (upwards or downwards).

How to Improve - Sports Infrastructure in Mumbai?

Step 1 - Study :

• Conduct an Exhaustive study – primary and secondary to understand needs, gaps and areas for improvement
• Involve Key Opinion leaders – sports, medicine, social, administration / policy, media

Step 2 - Policy : Develop a policy consensus for improvement

Step 3 - Plan and Design : Develop a detailed understanding of time, cost/funding, models (PP) and other requirements

Step 4 - Implement : Draw a practical timeline and implement

Step 5 - Monitor : Monitor the progress of the project with the help of professionals.

Hold on, it’s not all that gloomy...

NO, it’s not that there are no success stories for sports in Mumbai. There are many (and adding with every month) sportspersons from Mumbai who are finishing with podium spot. Some of them are –

• Mehak Kapur, a student of eighth grade had represented India and won a Bronze medal at the International Taekwondo Championship that was organized in March 2022 in Fujairah, one among the seven emirates of UAE
• Six-year-old Anishka Biyani won gold medal in the Malaysian Age Group Rapid Chess Championship at Kuala Lumpur in September 2022
• Local boy Nishant Karandikar won a bronze medal at the 5th Central South Asian, Dhaka 2021
• Three table tennis players of Mumbai – namely Diya Chitale, Reeth Teninson and Sanil Shetty represented India at the recently finished CWEG games in Birmingham. Several TT players affiliated with the suburban table tennis association won medals at international tournaments in 2022
• Seven-year-old Atharva Agarwal bagged gold at the Mission Olympic National Skating championship in February 2022.

While each of their success is worth celebrating, there could be possibly more to the list should we have a decentralized sports infrastructure in Mumbai. In addition, a Mumbaikar winning a medal at marquee event like the Olympic or world championships will be icing on the cake!

Right "Enablers" are in place..
Apart from players, coaches and sports organizers, Mumbai is blessed to have a right type of elements that are noticing the sporting activities closely and can act as enablers -

• “Mumbai Sports”, a think tank formed by Jay Kowli in 2008 along with likeminded sports personalities (of varied streams) is now making huge strides by utilising energies of many dedicated sports personalities from Mumbai, and is all geared up to advocate for improving sports infrastructure in Mumbai
• Integrated sports complex like Prabodhankar Thackrey Krida Sankul (PTKS) in Vile Parle is a “model” multi-sports centre that is worth studying and replicating across the city. Incidentally, the guiding star of PTKS, Sh Arvind Prabhoo is also part of “Mumbai Sports”
• Mumbai’s very own Shri Ashish Shelar is now a member of the Mission Olympic Cell. The Mission Olympic Cell is a 16-member committee working on the country’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).  Sh. Shelar has earlier also served as the president of MCA, the Mumbai District Football Association and the Jump Rope Federation of India
• Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) is a non-profit organisation that was set up by Sir Dorabji Jamshedji Tata in 1893. It started with only the Tata Athletic Shield, but now covers 19 different sports and has 400 schools and more than 60,000 students associated with it
• Parallel setups like Olympic Gold Quest can join the efforts by contributing to create modern sporting infrastructure.

Conclusion
People of sporting nations watch almost every sport. They consider sport as a part of their culture and not another form of entertainment.  A city’s access in sports reflects the way people (general population, educationists, governance, media) of that city think. Mumbai needs a massive change in its perception of sport. Our love for sport should not start and end with cricket or the Olympics.

While it is fine to celebrate their success on social media, people at large should attempt to make most of the momentum provided by such success, for that there is a need of mass association with sport (more than viewership) – from general population, governance and financiers.

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation has a massive budget outlay of Rs. 45,950 Cr for 2022-23. One struggles to find outlays for developing sport and sports infrastructure. The BMC is said to have over 321 maidans (or playgrounds) across 24 administrative wards; of which 87% are in the suburbs.  

It is high time that citizens, citizen groups, opinion leaders, sporting fraternity, media makes representation to decision and policy makers in the BMC and Maharashtra government. Any positive change in infrastructure will be visible and appreciated by coming generations.

The millennials (people who are borne between 1981-96) will hugely benefit as their children will benefit the most. While, Generation” Z” (people who are borne between 1997-2012) will most likely utilise such benefits and bring laurels to the city.

Incidentally both these groups make a sizable voter base too – which every politician and political party must pay attention too. It is need of the hour that professional politicians give due importance to improving sports infrastructure by giving its due presence in their manifesto and policy blue prints in the upcoming BMC elections!

Mumbai has what it takes to be strong sporting force – talent, finance, sports ecosystem, media and governance. Time for all these elements to come together, join the forces and create a lasting contribution to this great city, Mumbai. Somewhere I read a few lines - 

“Mumbai is rich,

Mumbai is poor.

Mumbai is fast,

Mumbai is slow.”

Time for all of us to add 

“Mumbai is Sport!

Let us celebrate Sports.

Let us celebrate Success."

Be real, be rare! Be wise in electing your public representatives!!

- Dhananjay M. Deshmukh, Mumbai
(Author is an independent market research and business consulting professional. Views are personal. Data presented is collected via online secondary research).