Anil Kumble's firm to bowl over corporates with sports gyan

Former Indian cricket captain Anil Kumble has partnered with former table tennis player Vasanth Bharadwaj to launch Tenvic a sports consulting firm that offers solutions to various target groups.

Tenvic (short for To Ensure Victory), aims to make sports as part of professional life through its business verticals: grassroots sport in schools, lessons from sport and branding in sport.

Speaking to reporters at the launch of Tenvic, Mr Kumble said, “We want to take lessons from sports to corporates and vice-versa. Also to encourage sports in India, we need to engage at the grassroots level and the process has to start now.” Tenvic, he added, will use the structural way of achieving individual and organisational goals through sport.

The grass-roots sport vertical will build structure and professional focus for sport coaching for school children. Currently, the Tenvic works with eight schools in three sports (cricket, table tennis and badminton), coaching 300 children. The target is to reach 150 schools and 12,500 children by 2014, Mr Bharadwaj said.

Through its second business unit, Tenvic will offer insights from sports for leadership development. The company will work with organisations in the areas of diagnostic studies, case studies, interactive workshops and simulated sport experiences.

The third is the area of sportspersons mentoring where sports professionals develop behavioural competencies for sport and life beyond.

Tenvic will have a mix of sporting icons and corporate and industry experts who will work together in the three business verticals. Currently, apart from Kumble and Bharadwaj, the company has roped in sports icons like VVS Laxman, Achanta Sharath Kamal, Prakash Padukone and DV Prasad as members of the expert panel.

Mr Bharadwaj said that Tenvic is in talks with two IPL teams and national sports federations and various sports persons to offer their services.

Set up with a mix of funding from angel investors (70 per cent) and founders (30 per cent), Tenvic expects to post a top-line of around Rs 40 crore in three years time.