Parth Jindal: Giving India a sporting chance

It’s a gloomy morning in Mumbai, the deluge threatening to put the city under. Jindal sits easy at the JSW Group headquarters at the Bandra Kurla Complex, savouring a black coffee.

Business acumen was never in doubt for the third generation of the Jindal family. At Brown University in the US (2008-12), where he switched from mechanical engineering to study economics and political science, he launched his first entrepreneurial venture along with a few friends. During a midweek lunch, they noticed few patrons at the restaurants on campus and started a subscription plan for students that offered meals at discounted rates. It was deemed a success when they were beckoned by the college president, who observed a significant drop in the number of students opting for the college meal plan over time.

“That venture not only helped us get internships and jobs, but we also walked away with good money once we sold the business on graduation," he says.

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After gaining experience at a hedge fund in New York and at a partner of JSW Steel in Japan, Jindal decided to learn the tricks of the trade at JSW Group. All along, he was clear that he wanted to build businesses and create his own legacy, much like his grandfather and father had in the past. And quite unknowingly, his first assignment handed him a brainwave that pushed him in the direction of sports.

“We wanted to understand why Tata commanded such a huge premium price in the steel market. When I posed as a mystery customer, I realised that their branding was just so strong. It was the same when it came to cement and the Birlas," he says. “And then it struck me—what if sports could be a medium to build JSW’s image? On one hand, we would be doing genuine work for the country and once India’s sporting success was associated with JSW, there couldn’t be anything bigger for the brand," he says.

That moment laid the foundation for JSW Sports in 2012. They started out with the Sports Excellence Program (SEP) to support Olympic disciplines. A few months later, the besotted Arsenal fan extended his passion for football when he landed the opportunity to launch Bengaluru Football Club. But over lunch with tennis legend Mahesh Bhupathi a few years earlier, he came to realise what India really needed—top-notch infrastructure to groom young athletes and ready them to take on the best in the world. He now sought stakeholders to partake in his vision.

It was easier said than done. It started with his father, who believed building such infrastructure was best left to the government. Jindal convinced him by pointing out the top facilities at the schools he had studied at, like Brown University and Sevenoaks in England. Then, he reached out to the JSW Steel board to raise ₹50 crore for IIS; he was told it would be sanctioned if he could get a third party to donate money.

Over the next couple of years, Jindal reached out to every major corporate house but returned empty-handed. Finally in 2014, he landed the first cheque from Akash Bhansali of Enam Group and in turn, funds from the board to start work on IIS in Vijayanagar, Karnataka. “When I look back, I never thought about the risks. Would athletes and international coaches move to the middle of Karnataka? Would the government and federations approve of it? The only focus was on getting it done in a world-class manner," Jindal says.

In 2016, Sakshi Malik’s bronze at the Rio Olympics was validation for SEP, which at the time provided funds and access to top coaches and training facilities around the world. Jindal recalls sitting in the arena beside his father during the repechage round. There was no other official nor were there any expectations.

“You know that famous photo of Sakshi with the Indian flag? That’s the one I gave her because there was nobody else there," he says.

IIS was readied by 2017 at a cost of ₹150 crore. Wrestling and boxing were included in the programme, given India’s rich history in the disciplines, while judo was added after Jindal had observed judokas cross-training with wrestlers in Japan. Track and field was the fourth, simply for the number of medals at stake during multi-sport events. Swimming was introduced last year, besides support for winter sports athletes.

While walking around the 42-acre campus, Jindal was overwhelmed at the realisation of his dream; more so, when he was greeted by young boys and girls with dreams in their eyes. He recalls meeting the Phogat sisters during the inauguration. “They told me, ‘Parth bhaiya, yeh aapne kya bana diya. Desh main pehli baar hume aisi cheez dekhne mili hai.’ (We’ve never seen anything like this in India before). That combat hall is still my favourite place to go watch training, it’s wild," he says.

The first hire was Rushdee Warley, chief executive officer at IIS, who had worked as a high performance consultant with the national teams of South Africa and New Zealand. He roped in experienced international coaches to head each discipline and Indian coaches to work alongside them.

But during the early days, top young athletes were reluctant to move to this unknown facility. So, the team reached out to the sixth and seventh best athletes in every age group. Once they started beating the No.1s, the IIS programme could no longer be ignored.

Besides, IIS athletes were given a monthly stipend. Grassroots coaches were handed incentives—if their ward made the cut and joined IIS, every medal earned would result in monetary compensation for them. IIS was akin to a residential boarding school, with every aspect of the athlete’s well-being attended to, besides, of course, access to seasoned coaches and world-class facilities. More importantly, IIS pushed every athlete to catch up with education, well aware that only a fraction would eventually reach the top.

“It takes one injury to end a career, but if you have your degrees in place, you can be a part of sport in so many ways... Today, some of them are employed as support staff, in the Armed Forces and as managers at various institutions. That’s why we tell our athletes that education is your bedrock," he says.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, IIS athletes returned with seven medals. At the Asian Games a few months later, they won five medals. What was common to both was a gold in the javelin throw for Neeraj Chopra, who was scouted at the Haryana State Championships at the age of 15 and is currently one of India’s most celebrated success stories.

Jindal has seen him transition from a junior world champion in 2016 to an Olympic champion at the Tokyo Games in 2021, and a world champion last year. But he believes IIS’s biggest contribution has been in helping him recover from an elbow injury in 2019.

“Neeraj wouldn’t have been at Tokyo, had it not been for the pandemic and the efforts of our sports science team. It bought them time and for 10 months, he was in rehab at IIS, gradually got back to throwing and then went to South Africa and made the Olympic cut. There was an early realisation that injuries were finishing careers in Indian sports, so putting in place a proficient sports science team was as important as the other facilities," he says.

Over the last few years, IIS has also adopted academies in Haryana, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha, that are grooming the next generation of athletes. Over 6,000 athletes train at IIS and all the satellite centres. They spend close to ₹120 crore annually on sports development of which, about ₹70 crore is raised through 25 corporates. In the time ahead, they want to take over operations at a high-altitude government centre in Uttarakhand, add rowing to their programme after the Olympics, and start a university that teaches everything from sports medicine to the business of sport.

Jindal, who alongside Delhi Capitals has picked up Pretoria Capitals in the South Africa T20 league, says, “Without cricket, I don’t think you can be on the business side of sport."

The anticipation is palpable after their athletes won 17 medals at the Asian Games last year. Jindal is glued to the Paris Olympics these days, where JSW Sports is represented by 41 athletes, among them Antim Panghal, a debutante wrestler and the youngest at 19 years, besides proven talents like Chopra, Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary.

“Never before have I seen such a coordinated effort between the private sector and the government. The other big change is that athletes are no longer satisfied with just representing India at the Olympics. There are a few who truly believe they can win medals and others who are gunning for personal bests. It’s a huge difference in mindset and to feel it is amazing," he says.

Sport is the ultimate emotion for Jindal, the greatest leveller that has taken him on a roller-coaster ride and handed him learnings of all sorts. Much like that quarterfinal tie a few decades ago that he thought he had almost won.

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Shail Desai is a Mumbai-based freelance writer.