Vinit Karnik, head of media company GroupM’s division that straddles leisure, e-sports and sports activities, is tough to rile even in the event you oppose his view that India’s sports activities business is not only about cricket. Karnik has been monitoring the sports activities business for a decade and publishing his findings in an annual report on India’s burgeoning enterprise of sports activities. The report analyses tendencies from the angle of sponsorships, athlete endorsements and media spends by manufacturers. Every yr, Karnik claims that non-cricket sports activities (soccer, kabaddi, badminton, hockey et al) are additionally rising although their contribution to the overall sports activities income hovers round 15%. The newest report launched on Tuesday exhibits that rising sports activities income declined by a marginal 1% (to ₹2,065 crore) in 2023 over 2022 whereas cricket income grew 13% in the identical interval.

Ask Karnik why non-cricket sports activities remains to be a tiny enterprise opposite to his claims, he says evaluating rising sports activities to cricket is just not the appropriate approach to have a look at the enterprise. “Sports was a ₹2,400 crore business in 2008 when Indian Premier League (IPL) started. Today, our sports industry stands at ₹15,766 crore of which cricket enjoys 87% share. Non-cricket sports have also grown as the pie has grown,” he says.

India’s sports activities business has grown at 13.2% yr on yr. “A lot of work goes unnoticed since we are so large and diverse,” he says. India has hosted two ODI World Cups and a T20 World Cup. It additionally held the MotoGP Bharat (bike racing) final yr and the Under-17 FIFA World Cup in 2017.

The previous few years have seen Indian athletes break recent floor — like Neeraj Chopra’s monitor and discipline gold on the Olympics, the Thomas Cup win in badminton, the wealthy medal haul on the Asian Games and the information in sports activities like wrestling, boxing, taking pictures and so on. “These wins are the consequences of a fast-blossoming sports culture in our country which will have reflections in the tremendous advances we have made in the commercialization of sports too,” the report stated.

The authorities and personal enterprises, too, are doing their bit to advertise non-cricketing sports activities. “Government is increasing the sports budget by 30% year on year. It leads the Khelo India programme which starts at the school and college level to build trust and confidence in promoting sports. It launched the Fit India movement for people like you and me who are not professionals,” Karnik provides.

Additionally, firms like Reliance, JSW, Adani and Tatas are all supporting completely different sports activities and athletes by way of their foundations. “It’s resulted in an increase in medal tallies and improved performance of our athletes on the world stage. So, I look at this business from this lens and not the narrow lens of emerging sports’ revenue contribution alone,” Karnik says.

He agrees that no different league has been capable of replicate the success of IPL as a result of cricket is faith right here. “We have a cricket history of more than 40 years. World over, sports is a business that builds value over time. I am not denying that cricket enjoys 87% revenue share while at 13%, emerging sports revenue is very small. For the 13% to become 20%- 25% will take time,” he says.

Sports advertising skilled Indranil Das Blah says that non-cricket sports activities will rise if they’ve nationwide icons like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni in cricket. “We have Neeraj Chopra today but we need more stars in other sports. They need to tick many more boxes before other sports truly emerge and that’s a long haul,” he says.

However, he believes that non-cricket sports activities pie will develop for the reason that authorities has realized the tender energy of sports activities. “This is why it wants to bid for hosting the 2036 Olympics,” he provides.

While the rising sports activities economic system will take time to dash, cricket will proceed to develop and stay larger, Karnik says. “From a sponsorship standpoint, emerging sports is around ₹1,528 crore while cricket is over ₹7,000 crore. In some years, cricket growth rates may plateau but it will still remain the largest sport in India,” he says.

A brand new Ormax Sports Audience Report estimates India’s sports activities viewers base at 678 million. Cricket, soccer and kabaddi are the highest three sports activities, with an viewers base of 612, 305 and 208 million respectively, it stated.