Ajay Maken starts off on the wrong foot!

India has a new Sports Minister, Ajay Maken. Sample what he had to say in his first media briefing, and it does not make for a rosy picture for the Indian sports industry:

“I request and wish that sportspersons be given a greater role and opportunity in federations and sports bodies. I don’t think someone who hasn’t played a sport at any level can be as passionate about administration as someone who has been a sportsperson,” Maken said.

“Those who manage sports bodies should have played the game at some level and transparency and reforms (with regard to tenure and age limit) also need to be implemented. But these bodies can be given time and it can be done in a staggered manner. We can’t have a confrontational approach. We have to talk to these administrators and ensure that they agree to what we want,” Maken added.

The minister also said that he was open to dialogue with officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has withdraw customs duty exemption for import of goods by the BCCI after it failed to submit relevant documents to register as a National Sports Federation.

For Gods sake, Mr. Maken, you are the Minister! You can’t be “requesting and wishing” that sportspersons be given a greater role and opportunity in federations and sports bodies. You need to empower sportspersons to play a more significant role! A la the Karnataka boys who barnstormed the KSCA!

While a non-confrontational approach in dealing with sports federations sounds great in principle, those in charge of the NSFs are not waiting to be asked to leave. They need to be shoved out if they are in violation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ guidelines on age and tenure in sporting bodies.

And going by the muted reaction in the media, the BCCI has hardly broken a sweat over the customs duty exemption being withdrawn for its failure to submit the necessary documentation to register as a NSF.

Maybe I am being a bit too judgmental so early in the day, but it is worth watching where Maken goes from here.

About the Author:

Amrut Joshi is the Founder of Gamechanger Sports Ventures (www.gamechangerindia.com). He can be contacted at amrut@gamechangerindia.com.

Does Indian Sport have Gary Wichard-like Agents?

Yesterday, I came across this interesting story of a NFL Player, New York Jets’ Jason Taylor dedicating his season to his agent, Gary Wichard (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2010/news/story?id=6038764), courtesy one of my LinkedIn connections, Lewis Howes. I must confess I have no knowledge of the NFL (either the sport or its business).

What however caught my attention was the many layers in the story of Jason Taylor and Gary Wichard. On first glance, it makes for a fascinating story. Wichard has been Taylor’s agent since 1996. As Taylor mentions, Wichard has grown to be a “father-figure” for him over the years, guiding him on matters as varied as the teams that he has played for, to his marriage, to performing on a TV show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ to counseling him on a limb-saving surgery in the dead of the night!

Another fascinating incident is the one where Taylor thumbs his nose at an $8.5 million Redskins contract, asking to be released because he wanted to be near his wife and kids. Taylor then signed a one-year, $1.1 million contract with the Miami Dolphins, sets an NFL record with his sixth fumble return for a touchdown (whatever that means!!) and then gets an offer to play for New York Jets. Taylor says the following of Wichard: “He never once said, ‘Hey, that’s a lot of money you gave up,’” “Or, ‘It’ll be tough to make that money back up.’ It wasn’t about that. At that point, the money wasn’t an important thing to me. And he was 100 percent on board with that.“

This to me, appears to be a relationship that is based on trust. A relationship that transcends the lure of money, and a relationship that transcends formal contractual arrangements. Very few player-agent relationships are characterised by such innate trust.

In India, my own personal experiences (based on the time I’ve spent tracking the sports market) can’t point to even one such relationship! Even in a sport that is relatively more exposed to the agents business, very few cricketers have agents who have been with them for 15 years. Most players view agents with a high degree of suspicion. Not that agents have done much to inspire confidence in the players. The relationship between a Player and an Agent is very transactional and very short-term in nature. If an agent does not have an endorsement deal on the table for a player in a quarter (regardless of the underlying market conditions), the Player begins to scout for an alternative agency. Likewise, the moment a Player loses form, the agent begins to look at other Players who could probably be more marketable. Players also tend to believe that they can do without agents and strike commercial deals with sponsors directly. While I don’t intend to argue that agents are indispensable, most Players do not have the time, or the commercial maturity to negotiate sponsorship/endorsement agreements themselves.

Perhaps, there is a need for both Players and Agents to reassess their attitudes towards the other and take a long-term view of their relationship. There has to be a recognition that neither of them can do without the others support. Will there ever be a day in Indian sport when a cricketer dedicates his ton or his five-for to an agent who has toiled behind the scenes to give the player the much needed financial and moral support? Or is it a completely utopian thought?

About the Author:

Amrut Joshi is the Founder of Gamechanger Sports Ventures (www.gamechangerindia.com). He can be contacted at amrut@gamechangerindia.com.