IPL, Olympic gold will spawn professional sports managers

Success has many managers. With the success of IPL and with the country registering its first gold medal in Olympics, sports management, already emerging as a field of study, will evince even more interest from students as well as the institutes.

Sports Management is the study of planning, supervising and organising sporting activities like international and domestic tournaments for games like cricket, football, hockey, golf etc.

An aspirant is required to be a graduate in any discipline, with 40 per cent marks. A physical education degree is an advantage.

Most institutes in India offer a one-year postgraduate diploma in sports management. B-schools such as the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies(NMIMS) and the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) have introduced courses in sports marketing.

According to a professor at NMIMS, the premier institute has introduced a course in marketing and finance using the IPL as a base case study, its various models and approaches, pricing issues, the auction process, branding issues, sponsorship and the concept of ambush marketing.

Employment opportunities are opening up, apart from sports organisations, several leisure management companies like golf clubs, resorts, adventure sports and other leisure activity centres also employ sports management students.

A lot of sports training centres are opening up with cricketers like Sourav Ganguly, businessmen like Mukesh Ambani, and IPL team owners like Shah Rukh Khan, opening sports and cricket training academies.

Sports managers can also be the personnel manager or agents of renowned players.

According to a SPJIMR professor, a sports manager can expect a starting salary of Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 a month, which can go up to Rs 3 lakh or more after two years.