[Music]
today I’m going to talk to you about
participative sport it lies on the other
end of the spectrum the sport in canvas
so you have SPECT tutorial sport and you
have participative sport and I’m going
to talk to her particularly on the sport
of distance running until the end of
2003 I think there was just one non
timed distance running event and after
the launch of the Mumbai marathon in
2004 this sport spawned a not so silent
revolution across the length and breadth
of this nation slowly at first but a
picked up rapid pace and 2017 was a
watershed year over 1 million people
registered for over 800 timed events and
that’s almost three events a day three
races runs a day and this was this this
this movement it’s inspired millions yes
millions and not only those who who
participated formally it inspired their
families their peers their colleagues
the friends but they saw this
transformation take place in front of
them they just just became one huge
tsunami if I may put it that way
and they said Shyam this entire movement
gave rise to a 300 million dollar
industry annually that’s what it is
today anyway
my journey began with my brother at the
start line of the London Marathon and
what I experienced there that day was
truly truly surreal it’s actually
so made me understand the difference
between spectator sport and
participative sport it really did
because spectator sport is about winners
and losers and we react to them as to
how that unfolds
I’ve played sport formally and I’ve also
been privileged to visit the Creator
sporting spectacles all over this world
be it the Rugby World Cup
be it the Grand Slams and tennis the
golf majors the Olympics have been so
privileged but I’ve always been part of
that side of the canvas of sport which
aspect tutorial but on that London under
start of the London manner starting line
I saw 40,000 runners and 40,000 winners
and I mean this and they were running
next not professional to remove all
shapes and sizes or caste and Creed men
women young old but they were all
winners and that’s the day I understood
I really got the power of sport what
sport is really stands for what it
really is about and the fabric of sport
because be winners but you nobody as a
professional you win you you race to win
but here everybody had trade for his
goal and that’s why we had 40,000
winners it is truly a surreal experience
and you know what comes with 40,000
winners is 40,000 stories and that’s
what makes life life is about stories
where my brother and me returned from
London we were all sort of feeling fully
charged this is what we are going to
tell you but this is what we’re going to
do when we sat back and we realize oh
it’s a bit of privado that we are kind
of showing over here because I was clear
on one strategy if this was going to
create change I needed to have the
richest marathon in Asia I needed to
have the best professional athletes on
the start line I needed to have the
backdrop of Mumbai and the best parts
Marine Drive Chatrapati Shivaji terminus
I needed live television with
helicopters in the air I need a global
brand ambassadors to come and inspire us
and take our tale back to the world and
I also needed sponsors to believe in me
but let’s not forget the 19 government
agencies that we needed to sort of mesh
together so that said also to work in
perfect harmony and then the politicians
and that was a bit scary but he looked
at what are we out to do what is
important is that when we started to say
okay doesn’t matter doesn’t matter
what’s in front of us we make it work
and we every story hit every box we sort
of not tried it it opened and it threw
us out pretty quickly so we said okay
okay let’s let’s look back and instead
of instead of trying to do everything
once let’s just prioritize and let’s
focus on finding a partner that believes
in our vision believes in the scale of
our vision and we can take it forward
and it took me two long years to find
Standard Chartered to back this vision
and I think it happened because they
understood the power of this of the
sport because they at that time owned
Singapore and Hong Kong and that
experience it was seven years in that
journey I’d made a presentation to an
FMCG major and he called me back it said
come I want to talk to you and I stood
in front of him and he said listen
Daniel I love your thinking I love the
way you’re putting it differently I love
what you’re trying to achieve but let’s
quit these grandiose plans of Le copters
in the air and blah blah blah blah blah
and let’s start step at a time and I’m
going to sanction one third of your
sponsorship asked I know I could have
negotiated up to half the sponsorship
asked but I just couldn’t say yes any
when we couldn’t agree I got up and I
was leave as I was leaving his door he
stopped he said you know mr. saying I
think you might regret this this
and I said to him I said sale you
probably I’m very more right than I am
but here’s my problem
if I fail doing it my way it’s okay
failure is not a problem I could sleep
peacefully I know I tried can’t work but
can you imagine but I if I fail doing it
your way but I think it won’t work how
will I sleep then and that’s why I have
to decline because I have to stick to
what I want to achieve what I do I see
it so it’s just that there’s a few you
get these temptations because I believe
in hindsight even today that the entire
dream would have been derailed if I went
along that way anyway now that I’m
empowered with money I started to knock
on all government doors and and by then
and of course the the institutions it
was as tough as anything I’ll tell you
one just to know what I was dealing with
the that time present traffic
commissioner when we been a presentation
to him actually leaned over the table
and said mr. Singh I just want you to
know that for the President of India we
do a rolling road closure and you want
me to shut the city down for you you
know I’ve got your letter think I’ve got
it I will reply I knew what that reply
was going to be it sure enough it was
but we didn’t stop we pursued this dream
we begged every door repeatedly
hallelujah one day a very senior
politician just understood every bit of
our vision understood every bit of what
we were thinking at the scale we wanted
to produce now I don’t know if that was
the six hundred and twenty seventh or
tenth or there’s what the 956 that Emily
don’t know but it’s important to know
that that extra step when you don’t keep
clean you don’t stop when you keep
plugging away things happen it’s got
what he believed in so that we they say
two down one to go
and what is that one to go that
want to go is spaghetti participative
but to getting people feets on Street
it’s so critical right and I remember
that we there’s no way that I would get
people to run 21 and 42 it wasn’t going
to happen more than Ted 20 30 40 so this
is what we did for the distance runners
we begged Army Navy Air Force customs
railways NISS to do sport border secured
was please give us run I was with the
elite field but please give us some
indeed also going to compete in these
distances and they were fantastic day
was simply fantastic I seek between in
the marathons we had what about 400
runners from these wonderful government
institution that that came and about 800
if I’m not wrong half marathon is and of
course we had the global elite field so
now we had a good close to 200 people
running the distances side but that
doesn’t make a story so what do we do
and that’s where the dream run was born
the dream run was that exist in any
event anywhere in the world it didn’t
exist it was our creation and the idea
was not able to say come and run it was
seven kilometer race in the first year
we said come feel the magic run walk
dance do it for whatever reason but come
our agency has got the campaign ready
come along and I did and this was the
campaign run because it makes you
healthy run because it decreases your
fat run because it’s good for you and I
couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I
said that’s not what’s going to happen
this is who you and I said and the
promoter of the event I’m discussing
with my client I know what’s best for
him so I said you may know what’s best
for anybody ain’t best for me and this
thing got a little aggravated and the
brand had
sorry what’s wrong with you this is a
campaign I said buddy I don’t have money
for my campaign
so he said okay you don’t like this what
we want to do I said I really don’t have
a clue what my campaign is I wish I did
I don’t have a clue but one thing I do
know it’s not this one so there was no
question of preaching it was a question
of creating hooks to get people in and I
went back and I did the campaign myself
it was possibly the most absurd campaign
I said run because he want to be on TV
run because she want to be on the
hallowed turf where Michael Johnson and
Mike and Mike Powell are run because run
because you want to do it for charity
run because of Eddie’s sake but Jerry
and on the race week on that Sunday
before I remember because I think I
slipped about 72 hours it about 31 days
and I’m not exaggerating
the beautiful part was that on the
remainder of the race week we had about
5,000 people 6,000 people registered but
by the Friday Thursday Friday Saturday
we had a total of 16,000 100 people that
registered and given the fact that we
had about a thousand and a little more
from the district running site the first
Mumbai marathon was close of over 70,000
people participation I mean
participative alone but just
participative sport and this entire
concept was not strong enough pillar on
which this movement could rest we had to
find another founding story and which
was charity and the idea was that we
were had to be cause agnostic no cause
was it was out way another course it
wasn’t it wasn’t that because every
runner today raised this money for his
or her cause of her choice and that’s
the magic because you need to feel
connected you need to feel involved you
need to feel empowered it’s vital
and all I’d say this is today the hour
of distance running vertical just our
distance running what he could have
concedes of four events has raised to
three hundred and twelve crores for over
six hundred NGOs and that’s the power of
magic and you know what and here’s a
beautiful part this is as people’s money
this is money that comes from here so it
was critical that we had a transparent
brilliantly secured stresses secure I
mean in terms of any wrongdoing and
here’s the magic if any of you donated
ten rupees in 2004 you’ll know in which
briquette lies that since the transfers
you’ve achieved that’s a lot of money we
managed to a lot of time we have a long
way to go and we’ve set ourselves an
audacious goal that but in the next
seven to ten years we will have 20
million people partnering this movement
and I promise you it’ll happen he said
first million that stuff it’s not yeah
should we make it work I’m just
listening to this to the speaker before
and if another thing that my brother
were making me feel so humbled because
in the last 15 years the landscape of
Indian of sport in India has gone a
radical change a myriad of changes look
at what’s happening to bud D badminton
hockey football but seriously
weightlifting boxing wrestling leagues
table tennis and this you know a longest
journey the can-do willdo spirit of what
the but this participative sport of the
distance running movement sort of
engineered itself today promoters have
seen the story of us that week to came
from nowhere and as long as we
kept taking that extra step we made it
happen and that believed they will see
so many promoters doing such magical
things and we’re so humbled by this is a
fantastic thing I’ve also had many many
emotional moments in my last 14 years
and but there’s one that is always
stayed with me and always will
it’s the younger doogal story for the
first two years uncle Joker
unfortunately is bound in a wheelchair
and the first two years his father would
push him across the track and people
were cheering ungood would smile and in
the third year something unique happened
he told his father he sort of just says
to his father wait and his father waited
until you could hungered pushed himself
on his wheelchair and stood up and the
crowd was going mental
and his father rushed sort of never seen
this he rushed or something and kind of
in a way he shrugged it off and he took
one step and I promise you I was there
this was spiritually came from the power
of the people cheering it all cheering
he did it he took that step and over the
next few years he’s taken a few more
steps that’s the power of sport and if
we all understand what participative
sport is and you know we filmed this
unger Dougal bit every year but we never
air it on television and we never show
it on social media we send this one
footage which our special camera team
for that we send this one footage we
send this footage to his family for them
to cherish and for them to see where it
came from
I’d like to leave you with a coat of the
great quarterback Joe Namath he was a
New York Jets quarterback a legend and
he said if we aren’t going to go
the way I go at all so ladies and
gentlemen sometimes going all that way
is just that one extra step thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
today I’m going to talk to you about
participative sport it lies on the other
end of the spectrum the sport in canvas
so you have SPECT tutorial sport and you
have participative sport and I’m going
to talk to her particularly on the sport
of distance running until the end of
2003 I think there was just one non
timed distance running event and after
the launch of the Mumbai marathon in
2004 this sport spawned a not so silent
revolution across the length and breadth
of this nation slowly at first but a
picked up rapid pace and 2017 was a
watershed year over 1 million people
registered for over 800 timed events and
that’s almost three events a day three
races runs a day and this was this this
this movement it’s inspired millions yes
millions and not only those who who
participated formally it inspired their
families their peers their colleagues
the friends but they saw this
transformation take place in front of
them they just just became one huge
tsunami if I may put it that way
and they said Shyam this entire movement
gave rise to a 300 million dollar
industry annually that’s what it is
today anyway
my journey began with my brother at the
start line of the London Marathon and
what I experienced there that day was
truly truly surreal it’s actually
so made me understand the difference
between spectator sport and
participative sport it really did
because spectator sport is about winners
and losers and we react to them as to
how that unfolds
I’ve played sport formally and I’ve also
been privileged to visit the Creator
sporting spectacles all over this world
be it the Rugby World Cup
be it the Grand Slams and tennis the
golf majors the Olympics have been so
privileged but I’ve always been part of
that side of the canvas of sport which
aspect tutorial but on that London under
start of the London manner starting line
I saw 40,000 runners and 40,000 winners
and I mean this and they were running
next not professional to remove all
shapes and sizes or caste and Creed men
women young old but they were all
winners and that’s the day I understood
I really got the power of sport what
sport is really stands for what it
really is about and the fabric of sport
because be winners but you nobody as a
professional you win you you race to win
but here everybody had trade for his
goal and that’s why we had 40,000
winners it is truly a surreal experience
and you know what comes with 40,000
winners is 40,000 stories and that’s
what makes life life is about stories
where my brother and me returned from
London we were all sort of feeling fully
charged this is what we are going to
tell you but this is what we’re going to
do when we sat back and we realize oh
it’s a bit of privado that we are kind
of showing over here because I was clear
on one strategy if this was going to
create change I needed to have the
richest marathon in Asia I needed to
have the best professional athletes on
the start line I needed to have the
backdrop of Mumbai and the best parts
Marine Drive Chatrapati Shivaji terminus
I needed live television with
helicopters in the air I need a global
brand ambassadors to come and inspire us
and take our tale back to the world and
I also needed sponsors to believe in me
but let’s not forget the 19 government
agencies that we needed to sort of mesh
together so that said also to work in
perfect harmony and then the politicians
and that was a bit scary but he looked
at what are we out to do what is
important is that when we started to say
okay doesn’t matter doesn’t matter
what’s in front of us we make it work
and we every story hit every box we sort
of not tried it it opened and it threw
us out pretty quickly so we said okay
okay let’s let’s look back and instead
of instead of trying to do everything
once let’s just prioritize and let’s
focus on finding a partner that believes
in our vision believes in the scale of
our vision and we can take it forward
and it took me two long years to find
Standard Chartered to back this vision
and I think it happened because they
understood the power of this of the
sport because they at that time owned
Singapore and Hong Kong and that
experience it was seven years in that
journey I’d made a presentation to an
FMCG major and he called me back it said
come I want to talk to you and I stood
in front of him and he said listen
Daniel I love your thinking I love the
way you’re putting it differently I love
what you’re trying to achieve but let’s
quit these grandiose plans of Le copters
in the air and blah blah blah blah blah
and let’s start step at a time and I’m
going to sanction one third of your
sponsorship asked I know I could have
negotiated up to half the sponsorship
asked but I just couldn’t say yes any
when we couldn’t agree I got up and I
was leave as I was leaving his door he
stopped he said you know mr. saying I
think you might regret this this
and I said to him I said sale you
probably I’m very more right than I am
but here’s my problem
if I fail doing it my way it’s okay
failure is not a problem I could sleep
peacefully I know I tried can’t work but
can you imagine but I if I fail doing it
your way but I think it won’t work how
will I sleep then and that’s why I have
to decline because I have to stick to
what I want to achieve what I do I see
it so it’s just that there’s a few you
get these temptations because I believe
in hindsight even today that the entire
dream would have been derailed if I went
along that way anyway now that I’m
empowered with money I started to knock
on all government doors and and by then
and of course the the institutions it
was as tough as anything I’ll tell you
one just to know what I was dealing with
the that time present traffic
commissioner when we been a presentation
to him actually leaned over the table
and said mr. Singh I just want you to
know that for the President of India we
do a rolling road closure and you want
me to shut the city down for you you
know I’ve got your letter think I’ve got
it I will reply I knew what that reply
was going to be it sure enough it was
but we didn’t stop we pursued this dream
we begged every door repeatedly
hallelujah one day a very senior
politician just understood every bit of
our vision understood every bit of what
we were thinking at the scale we wanted
to produce now I don’t know if that was
the six hundred and twenty seventh or
tenth or there’s what the 956 that Emily
don’t know but it’s important to know
that that extra step when you don’t keep
clean you don’t stop when you keep
plugging away things happen it’s got
what he believed in so that we they say
two down one to go
and what is that one to go that
want to go is spaghetti participative
but to getting people feets on Street
it’s so critical right and I remember
that we there’s no way that I would get
people to run 21 and 42 it wasn’t going
to happen more than Ted 20 30 40 so this
is what we did for the distance runners
we begged Army Navy Air Force customs
railways NISS to do sport border secured
was please give us run I was with the
elite field but please give us some
indeed also going to compete in these
distances and they were fantastic day
was simply fantastic I seek between in
the marathons we had what about 400
runners from these wonderful government
institution that that came and about 800
if I’m not wrong half marathon is and of
course we had the global elite field so
now we had a good close to 200 people
running the distances side but that
doesn’t make a story so what do we do
and that’s where the dream run was born
the dream run was that exist in any
event anywhere in the world it didn’t
exist it was our creation and the idea
was not able to say come and run it was
seven kilometer race in the first year
we said come feel the magic run walk
dance do it for whatever reason but come
our agency has got the campaign ready
come along and I did and this was the
campaign run because it makes you
healthy run because it decreases your
fat run because it’s good for you and I
couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I
said that’s not what’s going to happen
this is who you and I said and the
promoter of the event I’m discussing
with my client I know what’s best for
him so I said you may know what’s best
for anybody ain’t best for me and this
thing got a little aggravated and the
brand had
sorry what’s wrong with you this is a
campaign I said buddy I don’t have money
for my campaign
so he said okay you don’t like this what
we want to do I said I really don’t have
a clue what my campaign is I wish I did
I don’t have a clue but one thing I do
know it’s not this one so there was no
question of preaching it was a question
of creating hooks to get people in and I
went back and I did the campaign myself
it was possibly the most absurd campaign
I said run because he want to be on TV
run because she want to be on the
hallowed turf where Michael Johnson and
Mike and Mike Powell are run because run
because you want to do it for charity
run because of Eddie’s sake but Jerry
and on the race week on that Sunday
before I remember because I think I
slipped about 72 hours it about 31 days
and I’m not exaggerating
the beautiful part was that on the
remainder of the race week we had about
5,000 people 6,000 people registered but
by the Friday Thursday Friday Saturday
we had a total of 16,000 100 people that
registered and given the fact that we
had about a thousand and a little more
from the district running site the first
Mumbai marathon was close of over 70,000
people participation I mean
participative alone but just
participative sport and this entire
concept was not strong enough pillar on
which this movement could rest we had to
find another founding story and which
was charity and the idea was that we
were had to be cause agnostic no cause
was it was out way another course it
wasn’t it wasn’t that because every
runner today raised this money for his
or her cause of her choice and that’s
the magic because you need to feel
connected you need to feel involved you
need to feel empowered it’s vital
and all I’d say this is today the hour
of distance running vertical just our
distance running what he could have
concedes of four events has raised to
three hundred and twelve crores for over
six hundred NGOs and that’s the power of
magic and you know what and here’s a
beautiful part this is as people’s money
this is money that comes from here so it
was critical that we had a transparent
brilliantly secured stresses secure I
mean in terms of any wrongdoing and
here’s the magic if any of you donated
ten rupees in 2004 you’ll know in which
briquette lies that since the transfers
you’ve achieved that’s a lot of money we
managed to a lot of time we have a long
way to go and we’ve set ourselves an
audacious goal that but in the next
seven to ten years we will have 20
million people partnering this movement
and I promise you it’ll happen he said
first million that stuff it’s not yeah
should we make it work I’m just
listening to this to the speaker before
and if another thing that my brother
were making me feel so humbled because
in the last 15 years the landscape of
Indian of sport in India has gone a
radical change a myriad of changes look
at what’s happening to bud D badminton
hockey football but seriously
weightlifting boxing wrestling leagues
table tennis and this you know a longest
journey the can-do willdo spirit of what
the but this participative sport of the
distance running movement sort of
engineered itself today promoters have
seen the story of us that week to came
from nowhere and as long as we
kept taking that extra step we made it
happen and that believed they will see
so many promoters doing such magical
things and we’re so humbled by this is a
fantastic thing I’ve also had many many
emotional moments in my last 14 years
and but there’s one that is always
stayed with me and always will
it’s the younger doogal story for the
first two years uncle Joker
unfortunately is bound in a wheelchair
and the first two years his father would
push him across the track and people
were cheering ungood would smile and in
the third year something unique happened
he told his father he sort of just says
to his father wait and his father waited
until you could hungered pushed himself
on his wheelchair and stood up and the
crowd was going mental
and his father rushed sort of never seen
this he rushed or something and kind of
in a way he shrugged it off and he took
one step and I promise you I was there
this was spiritually came from the power
of the people cheering it all cheering
he did it he took that step and over the
next few years he’s taken a few more
steps that’s the power of sport and if
we all understand what participative
sport is and you know we filmed this
unger Dougal bit every year but we never
air it on television and we never show
it on social media we send this one
footage which our special camera team
for that we send this one footage we
send this footage to his family for them
to cherish and for them to see where it
came from
I’d like to leave you with a coat of the
great quarterback Joe Namath he was a
New York Jets quarterback a legend and
he said if we aren’t going to go
the way I go at all so ladies and
gentlemen sometimes going all that way
is just that one extra step thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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