Live India, Love Football

I clearly remember my first day on the job at Major League Soccer way back in 2003. My boss, David Wright, who at the time was the Manager of Fan Development shared his back story and emphasized how the University of Massachusetts, Amherst played a pivotal role in him going from a professional footballer to a sports business professional. Since that day and during my last 17 years in the industry, some of the individuals I respect the most happen to be alumni from UMass’s Post Graduate Sports Management program. It was always positioned as the ‘Harvard’ of Sports Management and while I didn’t actually attend UMass, there were times that I was surrounded by so many UMass graduates that I felt that I was a McCormack Department of Sports Management Alumni as well. Now fast forward to 2018 and the Global Institute of Sports Business has been firmly established in Mumbai with a vision to be the top Sports Management Institute in Asia.   I know that in order to be t...

The first batch of GISB graduated on 20 th December, 2019. It was a special moment for everyone who has been associated with this Institute as the graduation ceremony was a sign that we truly turned the concept of an industry designed sports management education institute into a reality – not that we really needed any more proof that we actually accomplished what we set out to do just two years ago. Also, to us, celebrating the first batch of GISB graduates is no different than celebrating the first batch of Harvard or Cambridge or Indian School of Business graduates as we strive to follow these world renown Universities and achieve our vision of being the top sports management education institute in Asia. The event was organized on a football ground overlooking a beautiful part of Mumbai. The weather was perfect – cool and breezy – and the set up on the Kick venue in Powai looked as classy as the GISB campus in Kurla. It was wonderful seeing our students again, ...

Towards the end of my 100 hours of meditation during the Vipassana course I recently completed (see post below), I started feeling very peaceful and had this thought that everyone in the world should do this course before they turn 30. That thought led to a list forming in my head of the top 5 things that all people should complete in their 20s which was essentially the inspiration for this post. So, readers, please note that I’ve done each of what’s written below as I only believe in recommending something which I’ve directly experienced. Also, these are listed in no particular order. Here we go: #1: Complete a 10-Day Vipassana Course: Meditation is a completely natural tool that leads to increased levels of harmony, compassion, wisdom, oneness, etc… with no dependency on religion or the external environment. The 10-day Vipassana course provides you with the opportunity to cut off from every day distractions and learn an invaluable practice which can transform y...