Live India, Love Football

For those of you that remember, I ran the Delhi Half Marathon last year and it was quite an adventure. I had only moved to India a few days before the race took place so the race was sold out and I had to buy some random guy’s number off of him right before the race started. Also, I was completely out of shape and jetlagged so I walked at least half of the 21km in excruciating pain. My blog post about this experience can be found at the beginning of my blog.  So fast forward a little over a year and it’s a completely different scenario. After my few week stay at Max Hospital back in July/August, I didn’t think that there was any chance for me to run the half marathon. Not only had I never fully run more than10 miles straight in my entire life, I was sickly, out of shape and about 12 pounds less than I should have been (not in a good way). Then I picked up the Times of India one morning in September, read that registration was open for the November 21st half marathon and decided t...

The funny thing about a dream is that you can’t strategize exactly how you are going to fulfill it. Dreams, by definition, are meant to be lofty and, at times, a bit abstract. The important thing is to remember that all you can do is know your dream, share your dream, visualize your dream fulfilled and always be a clearing for people to come into your life that have similar dreams. For the past 4 years, I’ve been telling anyone who wants to listen to me that my dream is to create a sustainable infrastructure for soccer to develop in India. Thanks to Dentsu and Conscient Group, I’ve been provided with the opportunity to begin to fulfill that dream. Our collective team created the Conscient Premier Football League. This is the pilot program of an organized youth soccer league that is based on the best practices found in youth leagues around the world. The focus is on creating a positive environment for youth to learn and play soccer www.conscientfootball.in. We launched the league ...

In addition to sport being the great unifier it is also the great justifier. This statement is explained through my recent experiences below. My yoga teacher invited me to join him and his family on their trip to each of their respective villages to celebrate Diwali. I said “Yes,” of course, and spent the last 3 days experiencing true rural India Haryana village style. Since this is a sports blog I will leave out the details of the excitement of milking my first Buffalo, the unique experience of being the first foreigner to ever visit these two villages and the simple beauty of life in an Indian village. I must say that it was incredible gaining a firsthand look at why Haryana villages produced the majority of Boxing and Wrestling medalists at the recent Commonwealth Games. These village men grow up in a culture of hard manual labor, eat protein rich vegetarian diets and drink more thick Buffalo milk in a day than one would think possible. This combination creates s...

Here is a picture of me and a buddy of mine JD Walsh. We met through a mutual friend in NY a few months before I moved to India. I remember having drinks with him on the Empire Hotel rooftop in Manhattan while he showed me a massive folder of press clippings of his basketball clinics in India.  He has made countless trips to India over the last few years and has taught thousands of coaches and players some of the more technical skills found in basketball.  We caught up the other day and it was great to share our respective experiences of growing sport in this country.  He is a good guy, a good friend and I wish him the best with fulfilling his dream to develop future basketball stars in India. Here is a link to his site http://jdbasketball.com/

 Last week I discussed the good, the bad & the ugly of my 2010 Commonwealth Games experience. This week was a 180 degree turnaround. I attended diving, field hockey, athletics and the closing ceremonies. In addition, I had the treat of going on a private tour of the Athletes Village which culminated in an entertaining concert by Punjabi musician, Daler Mehendi. It was truly one of the best spectator sports weeks I’ve ever had AND one of the best cultural weeks I’ve ever had. I genuinely believe that whether you are a fan of sports or not, watching sporting events in the countries you travel to provide an entertaining and interesting look at the culture of that specific area. This week I will focus on the positives of my 2010 Commonwealth Games experience with the Good & the Great. The Good 1. Getting into Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in 15 minutes for athletics opposed to the 45 minutes it took to get into the opening ceremonies last week 2. Watching the Indian 4x100 m...

 Over the past few months in Delhi, the one subject discussed more than the extreme weather has been the infamous Commonwealth Games. Unfortunately most of what is being talked about is negative which continues to be fueled by the media's decision stick it to Organizing Committee Head, Suresh Kalmadi and his staff.   As someone who has been involved in sports administration for the past 8 years, I must say that this has been one of the most interesting real life case studies I could have ever imagined being a part of. A dance/fight between the Indian government, Indian Olympic Association, the Indian media, the international media, the Commonwealth Games Federation, the athletes, the sponsors and, most importantly, the Indian public whose tax money funded this Indian soap opera. To the surprise of many, the 19th Commonwealth Games did actually begin on October 3rd and events have been taking place for the past week. I've been able t...

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2010/09/23/a-candid-chat-with-neel-shah/

The other week I attended my first Indian national team match. They were playing Namibia on a rainy Wednesday evening at Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi.  The new metro line recently opened up so I could take the train from my place in Gurgaon directly to the stadium in Delhi. What took 1 hour on the train would normally take 3.5 hours in horrendous Delhi traffic.  After my first successful Delhi train journey that felt like a WWE trial, I finally squeezed my way out on the platform and on to the hectic streets of Delhi. My friend, Arup, met me at the station and we hopped into an auto rickshaw to get us to the stadium gates.  Once we got to the stadium I was immediately amazed by how many security guards there were doing absolutely nothing, how many little shops were attached to the stadium and how many chaiwallahs there were sitting on the ground. Nothing like showing up to the Home Depot Center for a match. We got into the stadium and there were abo...

I’ve been attending a lot more sports conferences and events these past few weeks and I’m constantly reminded of one thing: I’m relatively unknown in the Indian soccer world. During my final few years at MLS I knew a lot of people in the US soccer industry and a lot of people knew me. Most meetings or conferences were reunions with friends and I never had to talk about what I’ve done in the past. I’m in a whole new environment now and am just an unfamiliar face in the crowd. At first it was frustrating, but then this past Sunday at the PFAI awards my attitude completely changed. I realized that I don’t want to be known or respected because I built and executed some grassroots programs in the US. I want to be respected in India because I actually have made a difference in this country. I need to show results to get results. This whole experience has been quite humbling, but I’m thoroughly excited to watch these strangers of the Indian sports landscape turn into peers an...

A few days ago I attended the PFAI awards show at the Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi. This is the event that is organized by the Baichung Bhutia led PFAI and is strictly for recognizing athletes.   What a show. Well attended by the who’s who in soccer in Asia both on and off the field , press and even an appearance from Bollywood actor John Abraham showing his support.   2 highlights for me: one was finally meeting Sunil Chhetri who is the first Indian to play in MLS and someone who I indirectly helped out http://www.kcwizards.com/news/2010/04/take-inside-look-chhetris-mls-move and the second was briefly showing my awful Indian dance moves on the floor with some players on the national team. All in all it was a great event.

A few weeks back I had the incredible opportunity to meet Sylvester Peter and his kids at the Angel’s Academy in West Delhi http://www.merinews.com/article/every-child-is-an-angel/15776642.shtml. Sylvester has devoted his life to providing holistic education to slum children in Delhi. There are about 35 kids that he interacts with on a daily basis, many of whom he has personally transformed from thieves and drug addicts into peer leaders. Although all the kids in the academy all love soccer, we spent the afternoon in their main room listening to their stories, sharing ours and being entertained by some hilarious and heartwarming skits. I always get so much more than I give during these types of visits. My goal now is to not be that random visitor who shows up to the many slums in India to donate some items, give some hugs, take pictures and leave. Not that there is anything wrong with this, but I am through with that type of contribution. I want to be a more consistent visitor who ...

So as you may or may not have noticed I haven't written anything for awhile. My past 2 months can be categorized into 2 distinct categories: #1 World Cup; #2 Hospital. 1. World Cup - It is incredible how much World Cup match times can affect your schedule, social life and health. Matches aired in India beginning at 4:50pm and ending at 2am. During the first week of matches I would jet out of work at around 5:30pm, head to a local bar/restaurant and watch all of the matches while stuffing myself with Kingfisher and Mutton Biryani. The next day I would sleepwalk into work and try to justify my odd behavior to my some of my non-sports loving colleagues. After a week of this, I gave up on the bar/restaurants and decided to watch the matches from the comfort of my own home. The problem with this was that somewhere around 12:50am when it's 0-0 at halftime, my mind started to tell me that it is okay to go to sleep and watch the highlights in the morning. I would then slink off to b...

I have finally accepted the fact that I'm in India and not in South Africa right now. Now that I've accepted that, I've decided to write about my experiences watching the tournament in this country. Last night I went to the home of the South African High Commissioner to watch the South Africa v. Mexico match.  Tonight is a hotel in South Delhi to watch England v USA.  I have trips to Mumbai, Kerala and possibly Calcutta and Bangalore planned over the next month.  I will have pictures and anecdotes available for my 8 followers of this blog.  I love you guys!

When I was young I was really good at soccer. Well, really good compared to the average kid.  Given the amount of money my parents invested into soccer leagues, camps, clinics, etc... I was able to jump into any team and pretty much my hold my own. I used to love just showing up to my local park with my cleats, finding a game and kicking ass.  I knew I would do well and I knew that I would be immediately accepted by my new friends.  As I moved into my 20s and started working at MLS I became pretty good at soccer.  I no longer played in high competitive matches, but would play in adult league matches with a team of MLS staff.  I usually took on captaining the team which meant that I was also actually on the team and knew everyone else who played. Even though I wasn't the best player on the team I always felt comfortable on and off the field. Now I'm 30, I'm in India, I don't know many people and I am only kinda good at soccer.  People...

May 27, 2010 was a significant date in my life. A day I will never forget. Through random circumstances I was invited to present "MLS as a Case Study for Building a Sustainable I-League" at the Indian Football Forum hosted by SportzPower. Anyone who has met me for more than 5 minutes knows that one of my dreams in life is to integrate the MLS business model into Indian football. The presentation was the ideal opportunity for me to begin introducing people in the Indian football community to who I am and what I'm committed to accomplishing in this wonderful country. I put together a presentation that provided an accurate look at the current issues plaguing the 3 year old I-League and how MLS overcame those same issues. The most important part of the presentation was that there were some clear action items on how the I-League can move forward. What I've learned is that during conferences in India, the presenters, panelists, keynotes, moderators, chaiwallahs, etc... lik...

This has nothing to do with soccer, but it's pretty awesome so I've decided to blog about it. It's no surprise to anyone that I'm smitten with Goa's charm and relaxing qualities. Both Vanita and I have wanted to go back since our last trip and fortunately our Goa based friends Matt and Deepti invited us down there to stay in a Villa with them at Anjuna beach. Better yet the the trip was going to be paid for by Outlook Traveler magazine for a story in their June edition. The 8 page story came out yesterday and here are a few pictures from the magazine. I love life!!!!

Hello friends. So much to update. Feel like my professional life has been turned upside down and by upside down I mean right side up. Well if you are still reading after that confusing sentence, what I'm trying to say is that my dream of contributing to the growth of football in this country is becomming more and more realized each day. Nothing feels better than doing what you love and loving what you do. You don't have to strive to be the smartest in the room, but you should always strive to be the most committed to the cause. Really makes a difference. Kolkatafootball.com recently interviewed me about my thoughts on the I-League, MLS, etc... The exposure was nice, but more importantly I enjoyed the opportunity to compare football in the US and football in India. There are so many similarities and differences and this interview allowed me to take a detailed look at the comparision 5.5 months into my time in India. Here is a link to the interview http://www.kolkatafootball...

The KC Wizards wrote an article about how Sunil Chhetri landed at MLS. I'm flattered that they mentioned Dentsu Sports India and my efforts during this process. My involvement was a combination of right timing, right relationships, right country and a genuine desire to see more Indians make it to the highest levels of soccer in this world. Here is a link to the article: http://www.kcwizards.com/news/2010/04/take-inside-look-chhetris-mls-move

Another trip...another great sporting experience. I went down to Mumbai these past few days to attend the India International Sports Summit hosted by Transstadia. Fortunately, Vanita's company sent her to the summit as well so we got a mini holiday out of it. The objective was to discuss ways to grow the sporting landscape in India.  There were about 500 attendees made up of government officials, marketers, NGO heads, club admin staff and sports legends.  Overall, it was a great networking event for Vanita and I and an excellent opportunity for us to learn more about the stregnths and areas of opportunity within the Indian sporting landscape. Also, growing football in India took up about 60% of the summit content which was reassuring given what my objective in coming to this country is. The lowlights were many pompous speakers who loved listening to the sound of their own voice, moderators only looking to create controversy, point...