Indian Sports Research Articles

Power and rent-seeking on boards: a case study of national sport federations in India

ABSTRACT Rent-seeking refers to the activities of individuals or groups who act to increase their personal benefits at the expense of organizations or wider society. Due to the inherently damaging nature of rent-seeking and its prevalence on some sport boards, there is a need for researchers to examine how it emerges and persists. The purpose of this study is to investigate how power influences the rent-seeking activities of board members in Indian national sport federations. An embedded single case study design is adopted. Drawing on a four-dimensional model of power, the research finds that board members source and use the power of resources, the power of processes and the power of meaning to fuel their rent-seeking activities. The findings show that these three forms of power have a mutually reinforcing effect, while the power of the system creates the context in which the other dimensions are used. The findings offer new insight into how board members, motivated by personal gain, ensure that suboptimal organizational governance structures are preserved in sport. This study contributes theoretically by illuminating how different dimensions of power interact in rent-seeking processes. Practical recommendations are outlined for stakeholders who want to overcome rent-seeking.

Focus on the people: key stakeholders’ perceptions of elite sport in India and its potential for development

ABSTRACT Rationale/Purpose : Despite its best efforts, India is still struggling to succeed in international sport. Consequently, this study aimed to firstly, contribute an empirically driven rich picture of the current sports environment in India and secondly, to explore management factors that might explain India’s elite sport achievements and stagnations. Design/Methodology/Approach : A purposeful sample of 25 key stakeholders (high level athletes, coaches, administrators and government officials) were interviewed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and reviewed against factors identified by Green and Oakley (2001) as those contributing to elite success. Findings : Participants revealed that India is definitely doing better on factors such as financial assistance and job security; issues that were always a constant source of concern in the past. Importantly, however, further exploration highlighted that resources invested in Indian sport are not being used effectively and that India may be following an erroneous pathway of prioritizing hardware over liveware (i.e. stadia over people). Practical Implications : The study provides some initial conclusions that managing the available resources differently by prioritizing development of Indian coaches and a coach development system might better facilitate India’s success in sport. Research Contributions : The current study, to the best of our knowledge, represents an important but comparatively unprecedented step towards trying to unwrap the sports field in India, a diverse and vast country.

Muscular Nationalism, the Female Body, and Sports in India

This videographic essay is a comparative examination of the manner in which women are located within a particular vision of masculinized nationalism that is ascendant in a globalizing India.

Inclusive Growth through Sports: A Comparative Study of Jharkhand Sports Policy with Haryana and Chhattisgarh

In recent years Sports area has scaled up to be a lucrative industry from a leisure and recreational activity. For maintaining theboom in this industry it is very important that sports should be viewed as a good career option by the youngsters. This paper aims todescribe the situation of Indian sports industry and challenges faced by sports persons in choosing sport as a career option by usingthe secondary sources. The sports policy of 3 states Jharkhand, Haryana and Chhattisgarh has been analyzed to compare thevarious initiatives taken by the state government for sports development because sport is listed as a state subject in Indianconstitution. It is very clear from the features of the policy that what makes Haryana to be the sports capital of the country while thepoor planning, late updation and improper implementation of sports policy can be a growth obstacle for state players ofJharkhand.

‘Star’ring a ‘new’ sport in India: pro kabaddi league

Learning outcomes To understand: – the demand and supply side challenges in launching a new product in sports. – Factors, which go into the making of a successful “new” sport. – The role of planning in sport management. Case overview/synopsis In July 2017, on the eve of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 5, kabaddi had emerged as one of India’s most important non-cricketing sport. PKL was India’s first men’s professional kabaddi league, introduced by Mashal Sports and Star India in 2014. Kabaddi was an indigenous sport, and India had an unbeaten international track record as world champions. Yet, the sport and its players had never received their due in India. In 2017, while kabaddi’s popularity had increased, leading to sponsorship opportunities, huge player bids, prize money and television viewership, all was not quite hunky-dory. A women’s kabaddi league introduced only the previous year had not been continued, despite an extended format in 2017. The audience profile also did not match that envisaged by Star. As a unique creator of sports content, Star was in an enviable position in India; and so was Kabaddi as a sport. How had Star created a new property around an indigenous sport with rural and rustic associations, transforming it into a snazzy, up-market sport within just three years, even while leagues involving other popular sports failed to create a mark? Could Star sustain this interest? How could kabaddi retain its “star” position within Star’s stable? Complexity academic level In an undergraduate or a postgraduate programme in business administration. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

Framing the shot: tracing the dialectical development of sports discourse in India through advertising images

This paper defines the category of the sports image ad in contradistinction to the sports narrative ad. Image ads, unlike narrative ads, are characterised by the use of sports images without employing spatio-temporal logic and sequentiality. After engaging in a brief discussion of the term image, the paper focuses on a structuralist study of the images employed in sports image ads on Indian television, and subjects them to rigorous semantic and syntactic analysis, using numerous examples, in order to extract the implications these images have for Indian sports discourse. It also undertakes a historical analysis of the changes that sports images have undergone over time in order to trace the changes in sports discourse in India since the advent of television in the 1980s.

An Institutional Framework for Governance Convergence in Sport: The Case of India

The purpose of this research was to examine the drivers and barriers of governance convergence in Indian sport. Governance convergence is defined as the adoption of four principles of good governance that are common in Western sport contexts—transparency, accountability, democracy, and social responsibility. To achieve the aim, a theoretical framework consisting of three interconnected levels—(a) the historically grown national institutional framework, (b) organizational field, and (c) organizational actors—was proposed, drawing primarily on institutional theory. A qualitative approach was used to empirically test the framework in the Indian sport context, where governance has been of key concern. The findings show that the framework is an effective tool for understanding the drivers and barriers of convergence with the defined principles of good governance. The development of this framework is important, given the link between the principles and positive organizational outcomes.

Prevalence of cricket-related musculoskeletal pain among Indian junior club cricketers

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Cricket is the most commonly played sport in India. The number of children playing cricket are increasing. There is growing evidence that injury rates in junior cricketers are higher than professional cricketers. In India at the community level, there are no standardized specific cricket injury prevention programmes (CIPP) which reduce injury risk. Minimal data is available from Asian countries, especially on junior cricketers. Our study is an attempt to focus on junior club cricketer injuries, plan safety precautions and emphasize role of CIPP.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> It was an observational study conducted on male junior club cricketers in the age group of 8-16 years. Based on a self-reported questionnaire, player’s physical status, training, injuries and their nature are assessed over a period of 12 months.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Over the study period 36 of 50 cricketers were symptomatic. The lower limb is the most frequently injured. Most common etiology is overuse. We found that the players are not following pre-training warm-up and post-training cool-down.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> CIPP should be implemented and strictly followed from the early stages of sports life. Pre-training warm-up and post-training cool-down should be included in their routine training. Overuse i.e. playing overtime and ignoring the pain during practice or match should be avoided. A supervised training and regular screening of players by orthopaedician or sports physician will keep them fit to play with full potential.</p>

Equal Pay for Equal Work: Labour, Sports and Constitutional Perspective

The research paper is based on the gender pay gap between men and women in India. The paper highlights the constitutional perspective and the rights that have been guaranteed under the Constitution of India in terms of providing equal opportunity to men and women. Further, the research is based on the recently formulated Code on wages Bill, 2019 that was introduced in the parliament to provide equal daily wages to men and women based on the work done and skills, as there is a problem in terms of providing daily wages to workers in India. The Code on wages Bill,2019 has been analysed and various significant challenges that it put forwards have been raised in the paper. Furthermore, the research highlights the gender pay gap between male and female athletes in terms of different sports and various existing policies that have been introduced for the same; and the need for a new policy to tackle a wide gap of wages between male and female athletes. The research is based on the constitutional perspective and the rights that have been enshrined in our constitution and how far states have provided these rights to men and women in terms of labour and sports in India.

An Empirical Study to Analyse Indian Cricketers’ Career Progression in View of Current Cricket Explosion

Sports career is brief and sport career transition (SCT) is a well-researched topic to see how players deal with it. Cricket is the most popular sport in India and the game is evolving thick and fast. Cricket has become an all season sport barring rainy and snowy conditions. Plethora of options are now available to the players which includes test cricket, one day international (ODI), twenty 20 international (T20I), Indian Premier League (IPL) and similar franchise-based leagues on T20 and T10 along with first-class domestic cricket. With this deluge in cricket, it is pertinent to study career progression of cricketers. IPL, despite a brand value of US$6.3 billion, is often criticized for bringing players into limelight too soon, paving way for playing test matches and fading even sooner into oblivion being unable to cope with volume and variety of cricket. The present article analyses Indian cricketers’ career progression pattern using hierarchical clustering analysis, and it also investigates if cricketers are graduating faster from domestic to test cricket using two-sample t-test.

Badminton Injuries in Elite Athletes: A Review of Epidemiology and Biomechanics.

Badminton is a popular sport in India and with multiple medal prospects will be closely followed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Considered the fastest of the racquet sports, players require aerobic stamina, agility, strength, speed, and precision, besides requiring good motor coordination and complex racquet movements. Injuries in badminton are common despite it not being a contact sport, and include overuse injuries, andacute traumatic events. The game is physically challenging and demands complex repetitive upper and lower extremity movements with constant postural variations and poses a high risk of overuse injuries to both the appendicular and axial musculoskeletal systems. Badminton also necessitates short bursts of movement with sudden sharp changes in direction, which places players at risk of non-contact traumatic injuries to joints and muscle-tendon units. Preventing injuries and decreasing time away from training and competition are critical in an elite badminton player's sporting career. This analytical review identifies the incidence, severity, and profile of badminton injuries in elite players, and discusses the biomechanical basis of these injuries.

Play India Youth Games (Khelo India): Scheme for Promotion of Sports in India

Sports is an extremely important component for the overall development of our nation. India in the last few years has made steady progress in the field of sports. Keeping in view the Khelo India programme has been introduced to revive the sports culture in India at the grass root level by building a strong framework for all sports played in our country and establish India as a great sporting nation. This program costing Rs. 1756 crore will be spent on 2018-20 to 2019-20 period. This game program will be used as a tool for personality development, community development, economic development and national development. Ministry of Finance on 28th October, 2015, had advised this Department to suitably restructure the Centrally Sponsored Scheme into a Central Sector Scheme and divided State Governments throughout India by dividing the states into six zones, i.e., Northern, Central, E astern, North E astern, Southern and Western zones. This paper explores fully the contents of Kheloindia scheme such as details of scheme, its components, infrastructure, administration, financial implications, monitoring and many more.

Study on the Broadcast of Women's Sports in India

Study on the Broadcast of Women's Sports in India

Impact of covid-19 on revenues of world cricket and Indian sports

Impact of covid-19 on revenues of world cricket and Indian sports

Impact of Fantasy Sports on Indian Sports Market

Impact of Fantasy Sports on Indian Sports Market

Jallikattu – beyond a heroism sport for SKCRF

Learning outcomes The learning objectives have been prepared in accordance with the Blooms Taxonomy (Engelhart et al., 1984). After completion of this case, students would be able to examine and expand the concept of institutions (i.e. a sport as an institution in this case) and understand how important it is to incorporate them in the policy level decision-making (Knowledge); understand a different form of the social institution (i.e. Jallikattu) and capture its relevance for all the involved stakeholders by taking into consideration the challenges that could stem from their interplay (Application); analyze the interests of various stakeholders and their concerns that add to the complexity of a socially relevant issue (Analysis); and integrate the developments of an event (i.e. Jallikattu) over its timeline and develop an action plan for being prepared or for resolving such exigencies, especially for public policy decision making (Synthesis). Case overview/synopsis The case is centred on Senaapathy Kangayam Cattle Research Foundation whose primary aim is conservation and breeding of native breeds of cattle. The protagonist of the case, Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, managing trustee of this foundation, has invested significant efforts to create awareness on the importance of Jallikattu. Jallikattu is an ancient Indian sport played in the rural regions of Tamil Nadu state in India and has been in existence for over 5,000 years. This issue has come into limelight due to its initial ban by the Supreme Court of India in 2014 and its subsequent stay on the ban in 2016. While there are several arguments surrounding this controversy, the arguments can be broadly classified under those who support the ban (i.e. oppose Jallikattu) and those who oppose the ban (i.e. support Jallikattu). Due to the involvement of various stakeholders (government supreme court, animal welfare boards and breed saviour groups) with conflicting objectives, the dynamics of decision-making to settle this issue became very complicated, confusing and time-consuming for Karthikeya. By using the lens of institutions and stakeholder theory, the authors explain the issue around Jallikattu in this teaching note. Teaching note also documents the unfolding of events that happened after 12 January 2017 which succeeded in lifting the ban on Jallikattu. Complexity academic level The case is written for undergraduate and graduate-level students pursuing business programmes and for senior management professionals participating in the executive education programmes. The case is suitable for those who are expected to work in an environment where there is a multitude of complex, formal as well as informal institutions. This case can be used to teach the concepts of institutions, the dynamics involved and to give the flavour of the interactions between these different institutions in solving a social issue. It will fit well into courses on strategic management, social movement and institutional theory. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Traditional Indian sports – A case-control study on Kho Kho players investigating genomic instability and oxidative stress as a function of metabolic genotypes

The beneficial effects of physical exercise regularly for overall well being, or for recreational or professional purposes are widely accepted in clinical practice and have from time immemorial been the reasons for performing traditional sports. On the contrary, there is also evidence implying increased oxidative stress and genetic damage from intensive exercising. Depending on the intensity, time, frequency and characteristics of exercises, there can be differential induction of oxidative stress and provocation of oxidation of cellular macromolecules (including DNA) and cellular dysfunction which can likely accumulate with age, physical attributes and increase the susceptibility to disease on one hand, while stimulating cell signalling pathways leading to cell adaptation and improved resistance to stress, on the other. In order to observe if continuous sports activities as in Kho Kho increase oxidation capacity, which can also provoke oxidation of cellular macromolecules, the effects on oxidative/antioxidant changes and DNA damage in professional Kho Kho players modulated by individual genetic differences were assessed. Kho Kho, a traditional Indian game of ‘Tag’, is an all-time favourite which requires endurance, agility and strength. Healthy Kho Kho players (20.27 ± 0.28 y; sports age 6.78 ± 0.52 y) and controls (20.90 ± 0.45 y) were matched for age, gender, BMI, VO2 max (maximal oxygen uptake), frequency of GSTT1 (present/null), M1 (present/null), SOD2 (C199T) polymorphisms but differed for variant allele frequencies of GSTP1 (A313G) and SOD2 (C47T). Players compared to controls had significantly increased levels of DNA damage (1.8x, 44.66 ± 1.68 vs. 23.85 ± 1.79 μm, p = 0.000), lipid (MDA) peroxidation (2x, 1.72 ± 0.06 vs. 0.83 ± 0.16 μmol/l, p = 0.000) and total antioxidant capacity (1.09x, 1.69 ± 0.06 vs. 1.11 ± 0.03 mmol Trolox equivalent/l, p = 0.000) but with no differences for SOD activity (94.99 ± 2.42 vs. 93.36 ± 2.54 U/ml, p = 0.935). These results suggest that the players have increased genetic damage and oxidative stress probably from the intense physical activity in the absence of other exposure(s) as other attributes were comparable in the study group. The players may therefore be at increased risk for susceptibility to cancer, various diseases and precocious age-related changes and should be sensitized to health risks related to regular intensive physical exercise.

Sports in India: Problems, Reform Measures and Remedial Initiatives

Sports in India: Problems, Reform Measures and Remedial Initiatives

CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS OF SPORTS IN INDIA

CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS OF SPORTS IN INDIA

CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS OF SPORTS IN INDIA

CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS OF SPORTS IN INDIA