Star Sports India Pro Leagues Forum 2013: Leander Paes the Star of the Event!

The first-ever Star Sports India Pro League Forum 2013 organised by SportzPower was held on Friday, December 13 from 9.30am to 6pm at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi with tennis legend Leander Paes the star of the event.

And I am not saying this for what all Leander has achieved on the tennis courts of this world, but rather the way he spoke at a sports business conference about India and its sports with the opportunities it gives a country of our size.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Lee on a number of occasions, privately and for work, so I knew that he is a thorough professional and a very good speaker.

Leander spoke as an example about the World Team Tennis, which is held over 21 days in July/August each year after Wimbledon as a 16 city-franchise-based league in the United States. Leander has been part of the Washington Kastles for a number of years and is one of the stars in the WTT, where ex-pros, current stars and stars of the future play in a five match format of men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles.

It was an example of a successful league in itself, which cannot and does not want to challenge the big North American leagues like NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL. An own sporting eco-system which has now existed for a number of decades.

Coming to speak about India, Leander praised Cricket’s Indian Premier League and what it has created as something of its kind did not exist in Indian sports. And only speaking about the sports and business model of the IPL, Leander said it is something that other sports should try and copy, but only in a way which suits their sport.

Leander also spoke about the hope that his favourite sport football makes a breakthrough and wished the IMG-Reliance/Star Sports promoted Indian Super League all the best as Indian football needed bigger and better penetration.

Once again, an impressive speech or lecture, whatever you want to call it from Leander as everyone in the room listened to what he said. I hope people also implement some of the ideas that Lee brought forward.