There are several avenues to invest in sports beyond cricket, said former international cricket umpire K.N. Raghavan. “Everyone has been investing in cricket because it had done so well,” he said at the Malayala Manorama Sampadyam Business Summit 2025 in Kochi.
Raghavan underlined how chess in Tamil Nadu has garnered global attention. “One school has shown that we can be world leaders,” he said, referring to the Velammal Vidyalaya in Chennai that produced over 20 grandmasters, including Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh Dommaraju.
“There can be models that can be replicated,” he said during the session “Trending businesses in sports sector”. The former umpire stressed that people should only invest in sports that they are passionate about and that everyone should be patient—for returns in sports take time.
Raghavan was candid in his assessment of the government and its involvement in sports. “It is best to keep the government away from sports,” he said.
“The government, structurally, is not capable of running sports,” Raghavan said, and added that it needs to be run separately—for wherever there is government interference, there are problems.
Citing the case of cricket, Raghavan said that the government has minimal interference in the sport because it is headlined by sportspersons who are public figures. There are various politicians involved in cricket, but they have managed to work within the structure of the BCCI, he added.
Instead of increased government involvement, Raghavan called for a sports policy that ensures a better system and reduced taxes, wherever required. He also highlighted that earlier, people joined sports for a government job. The moment they joined a PSU or a bank, they used to quit the sport.
But now, some sports have professional leagues where sportspersons could reinvest in themselves and their future, and that is the model that should be promoted, said the former cricket umpire.
Ex-AIFF general secretary Shaji Prabhakaran calls out poor governance in sports
Raghavan’s comments came on the heels of former general secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, criticising the “poor standard of governance” leading to lack of investments.
“Governance needs to be good and transparent, from top leadership to bottom,” he said.
(From left) KFA chairman Navas Meeran, former AIFF general secretary Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, K.N. Raghavan and Malayala Manorama Assistant Editor Manoj Mathew at the Malayala Manorama Sampadyam Business Summit 2025 | Malayala Manorama
Attracting investment in sports is among the toughest challenges in Kerala and in India overall, due to certain factors such as perceived corruption, Prabhakaran added.
He lamented how the public looks at sports administrators as corrupt due to a few bad apples. Those who are truly interested in sports want it to grow, he said. “80 per cent of them want to contribute, but 10 to 15 per cent are utterly corrupt.” Calling these fringe elements in sports administration “shameless”, Prabhakaran said that these “corrupt” officials had no interest in governing a sport. However, cricket, due to its star power, hides governance issues. And, therefore, it has no issues in bagging investments, he said.
“If you have Messis, if you have Ronaldos… or even, consistently, I.M. Vijayans, or P.T. Ushas, all sports can attract bigger brand investments,” he added.
The former AIFF general secretary called for tax concessions and GST reductions for sports goods in order to bring more investments, and people to sports.
Kerala Football Association (KFA) chairman Navas Meeran joined Prabhakaran and Raghavan on stage, in the session moderated by Manoj Mathew, assistant editor at Malayala Manorama. The second edition of the summit was held at the Grand Hyatt Bolgatty.
