You cannot win all the
time in sport: Goenka
Owner of IPL Pune and ATK feels franchise leagues the way
forward in India
Image Credit: PTI
The ISL semi-final second-leg between Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC in Kolkata was played in front of a
crowd of 68,000.
Published: 15:52 December 28, 2015
Gautam Bhattacharyya, Sports Editor
Kolkata: It may be less than two years that RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, a corporate powerhouse has
made their foray into sports franchises in India, but they have been already making waves. Their football
team Atletico de Kolkata were the champions in the first season of Indian Super League (ISL) football
and were semi-finalists this time around, while they became owners of Pune – one of the new franchises
in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last month.
The berths for two new IPL teams were created following the two-year bans on Chennai Super Kings
and Rajasthan Royals on charges of corruption, and Pune started with a bang in the Players’ draft pick
earlier this month by roping in Indian one-day captain M.S.Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin at the first
opportunity. The expectations will be naturally sky-high when new outfit makes it’s debut in IPL IX, but
the group chairman Sanjiv Goenka tempers it in his calm, unfussed style.
Speaking to Gulf News in an exclusive interview in his roomy office at Victoria House, one of the iconic
buildings of the city which headquarters the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC), the city’s sole
power service providers, the scion of the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group admits that the success-rate of ATK
cannot be always guaranteed in cricket. “Winning and losing are an integral part of sport, as in life. You
have to go through ups and downs – sometimes you get disappointed, sometimes you get happy. You
can’t win everytime but as long as the team has given it’s best shot, I am fine,” said Goenka, whom the
Forbes magazine has this year ranked among the top 100 businessmen of the world.
Confirming that ‘MSD,’ statistically the most successful captain in IPL history will be at the helm of the
Pune team as well, the 54-year-old Goenka said the team management is very much on the drawing
board now to zero in on their support staff, potential team combination and other nitty-gritties. “You will
hear about them very soon,” he says with a smile.
A strong sense of pragmatism underlines Goenka’s logic and vision for his team in the IPL, a product
which had changed the landscape of world cricket over the last eight years but is clearly facing a
credibility crisis for now.
Asked if his New Rising Promoters, along with the Intex Mobiles who bought the Rajkot franchise had
‘bailed’ out the Indian cricket board to make it a eight-team competition next year, he came out strongly
in support of IPL: “See, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) does not need anyone to bail
them out. As far as we are concerned, the league is a brilliant product and when we got a two-year
window for a new team, we decided to go for it. We are not thinking beyond the next two years as of
now.” Incidentally, the 10-year franchise rights acquired in the 2008 auction expires in another two years
and the BCCI will throw open fresh bids for all the eight teams in 2018.
There is a muted buzz about a possible behind-the-scenes role for Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian
skipper and one of the stakeholders in Goenka’s ATK, in his IPL team. While Ganguly’s inputs could be
invaluable, it would also expose him to the charges of conflict of interest as the former captain of Kolkata
Knight Riders is currently a member of the IPL governing council. Dismissing any role for Ganguly in
Pune, Goenka said: “No. What makes anyone assume that because he (Ganguly) is associated with
one of my ventures, he will be involved in others well? Why doesn’t anyone ask if my other partners in
ATK like Harsh Neotia or Utsav Parekh are part of the IPL team too? ”
It’s part of IPL culture to have the second generation of some of the franchise-owners gracing the
dugouts, the prime examples being the junior Ambanis for Mumbai Indians, Siddharth Mallya for Royal
Challengers Bangalore or Gayatri Reddy for the erstwhile Deccan Chargers. Asked if Goenka’s son
Saswat will be involved in their affairs of the team, he was quite categoric: “I don’t think so. Right now,
he is very focused in our retail business (Spencers).”
The IPL has, for all the controversy it may have courted over the years, can claim to be the pioneer of
franchise-based leagues in other sport like football, tennis, badminton, kabaddi and now pro wrestling.
Asked if such franchise leagues is the way forward to corporatise Indian sport and market it better,
Goenka agreed: “It’s the way that’s working. IPL showed the way but football is coming up, the ISL II
was much better. Kabaddi has also done very well…
“A few years back, you had cinema halls as one way of entertainment. There are multiplexes for families
and malls, now it’s cricket plus Bollywood…the way you spend your free time has changed and there
is now a 360 degree experience available for the consumers.”