Mysuru: “To be successful in any profession including sports or law, the key ingredient is passion. If somebody doesn’t have passion it is hard to see them successful in their endeavours”, said former international tennis player and Arjuna awardee Somdev Kishore Devvarman.
Delivering a sports talk after launching the Sports Management Courses which will be conducted by Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development (SDM IMD) in association with The Centre for Sports and Management Studies at its premise here on Monday, he said, “Does the sports culture really exist in our country where we can actually go out and say that sports is a viable professional career, looking from both management side and athletes’ points of view and actually I think the answer is no, but the trend is changing. In 1970s there were just handful of professional athletes; in 1990s few more added but now with the Pro Kabbadi, Badminton, Wrestling and Cricket league, I think sports is truly growing in our country. So keeping the growth in mind, it is extremely important that it is taken up professionally and in this endeavour it is a very good opportunity for the students to learn about sports through sports management courses and walk into the profession as India is emerging into a prospective sports industry.”
What actually makes an athlete:
Even Somdev Devvarman was touched by Dangal movie. Referring to this, he highlighted the passion and dedication by Geetha Phogat, a freestyle wrestler who won India’s first ever gold medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in 2010. “I was touched to see the scene especially after she loses in Australia and she was yet to come out from that defeat even while travelling in flight. But later, she becomes successful and even wins gold medal in Olympics only because of her passion, dedication, determination towards the sport.” He even shared his tough time during his stint in Academy in 2002 where he was paid just Rs 120 per day which included food for three times a day.
When people in Africa can achieve why can’t we?
“People generally in India, try to find excuses and reasons for not being successful rather than finding motivation as to ‘we should be.’ One of the biggest things people talk about here is the lack in infrastructure but my counter argument is why Africa is successful without any outstanding infrastructure, which is even less when compared to that of India. So somethings exist there which doesn’t exist over here. It’s all just a mindset regarding how we look at sports.”
Musthafa Ghouse, former Indian tennis player who also spoke on the occasion mentioned that such sports management programmes would benefit the sports persons in the long run. “If right people with right mindset sit on the chair it will really do a lot of good to the sports persons and one can expect more medals in the near future.” Enrico Priperno, founder member of CS and MS introduced the concept of ‘sports management’ needed to address the fast changing and growing need of sports business, sports tourism and sports management. H Gayathri, Programme Director and Deputy Director of SDMIMD also briefed about the programme.
Sports Management Courses:
From this academic year, the institute along with CS and MS will be conducting one year Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Sports Management (PGDSM) and a three months Certificate Course in Sports Management (CCSM) for the sports enthusiasts and professionals.
