Leaders in Sports: Interview with Nandan Kamath, Managing Trustee, GoSports Foundation
Next leader to open up in the series ‘Leaders in Sports’ is Mr. Nandan Kamath. He is the managing Trustee of GoSports Foundation, an organisation striving to provide young athletes support, knowledge and encouragement to help them realize their dream.
Nandan is a law graduate from Harvard Law School, the University of Oxford (on a Rhodes scholarship) and the National Law School of India. He has represented India Under-16′s and captained the Karnataka state team as well. Presently Nandan runs a boutique sports and intellectual property law practice in Bangalore.
Nandan Kamath
You went to Harvard Law School, so how did you get into sports from there?
I played various competitive team sports right through my time in school and college and I must have spent more of my teenage years on the play fields than I did in the classrooms. I was on track to play cricket professionally until, much to my own surprise, I got admission into the National Law School, Bangalore. From that point on, my academic pursuits and classroom time took precedence.
My legal interests grew in the spheres of intellectual property and media laws. After having done my graduate studies in the UK and in the US and then having worked in the US for a few years, I had a strong desire to get back home and to build something I cared about. I looked back and realised that sport had been the common theme that had brought me joy, friendships and enjoyable experiences. At the same time, I wanted to use the knowledge and skills I had picked up along the way. This led me to mould my professional interests around sport, with a focus on sports law and a passion for sports development. At the core of my choice was my love for sport and the desire to share it with others.
Which sports do you play and follow?
I played competitive cricket and hockey at the junior level and I thought they were both fabulous team sports, especially hockey. I also had a short stint as a football goalkeeper at the school level, short because it was unclear which team my efforts were aiding. These days I swim, play an occasional round of golf and some friendly cricket matches, sadly none of them with much distinction.
I’m happy to watch any sport particularly when I can watch it live at stadiums, which my work luckily permits me to do quite often. I am not passionate about following any particular sport or team but am generally aware of what’s going on in sport across the world.
Over time, the way I consume and engage with sport has changed – today I’m possibly watching out for different things, the way a sport is organised and administered, the commercial choices made by the organisers, more things at the level of sports policy and management. Maybe that’s inevitable when you make sport your profession. That’s not to say I don’t still enjoy watching an outstanding sporting performance, it is just that the focus of viewing has changed.
Do you follow any team(s) closely? Who is your favorite player(s)?
No, I don’t have any favorite teams if you mean professional football teams and the like. I do closely follow the performances of our national teams and athletes with much interest, so I suppose you could say I follow Team India!
My two sports heroes growing up were Prakash Padukone and Rahul Dravid. I still greatly admire both of them. Among the contemporary international sportsmen both Federer and Nadal top my list on many counts. I am also an admirer of our Indian athletes who aspire and achieve internationally, against the odds.
Tell us about GoSports Foundation. What is it about?
At the centre of the GoSports Foundation mission is the desire to inject professionalism and positivity into our sporting ecosystem. We felt strongly that we had these to offer and that it would be meaningful and valuable to proactively contribute our efforts.
Our programmes are focused on creating financial and knowledge-driven support systems for young athletes through scholarship, grant-giving and mentorship projects. This is partly about plugging some existing gaps and partly about playing a part in changing the narrative of Indian sport.
Having established our scholarship programmes, we are also eager to work at the policy level and are also kick starting initiatives addressing certain other needs such as post-career planning and employability and a few others that we believe will make for a better-prepared and more confident Indian athlete.
As we are not financially pre-endowed, we also work hard to bring more money and support into sport and provide those who wish to engage with sport an independent, transparent and professional platform through which to manage their engagement with Indian sports development. Our network of supporters has been growing steadily and comprises primarily of those who love sport, have personally gained from sport and know what it has to offer.