Indian cricketer Anil Kumble turns entrepreneur by floating sport education outfit

India’s well-known cricketer Anil Kumble is now turning a sports entrepreneur after he bid adieu to all forms of the game on Tuesday by making himself unavailable for the forthcoming twenty 20 Indian Premier League auctions.

The former Indian skipper and leg spinner is floating his own start-up venture called Tenvic that will focus on providing for sports education and training in mainstream schools across the country, according to a report by The Times of India.

Kumble, 40, who has 619 test wickets to his credit, had recently turned to sports administration by winning the coveted president’s post in an election to a cricket body in his home state of Karnataka.

The name Tenvic is inspired by his ten-wicket haul he achieved against Pakistan at Ferozshah Kotla grounds New Delhi in 1999.

Tenvic’s investors include Anil Kumble and his brother Dinesh. Other investors include Praveen Chakravarty, former managing director of BNP Paribas Securities and Vasant Bharadwaj, a former table tennis champion, the newspaper report said.

The start-up company is in the process of raising capital to the tune of between $5 million and $10 million from venture capitalists for its initial business scale-up, the paper said.

Tenvic will cater to multi-sport disciplines such as football, badminton, table tennis and chess besides cricket. Star cricketer Rahul Dravid will advise the firm on developing education content, the newspaper report said.

As part of its business model, Tenvic will have three verticals focusing on sports education and training for schools, training for corporate and life skills training for former sportsmen to help them earn their livelihood.

Services will be fee-based and the affordable platform could help reach out to around 50,000 schools over a period of time.

“The target is to reach over 2 million school-going kids over the next five years. The firm's approach will not involve setting up exclusive academies, but reaching out to the mainstream schools with education content and training,” the report quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The source said Tenvic’s approach will be to reach out to mainstream schools with education content and training and will not involve setting up exclusive academies.

Tenvic will be managed by a set of professionals with a chief executive and a business head for each vertical, the report said.