MUMBAI: Yannick Colaco, who recently quit Nimbus Sport where he was chief operating officer, has joined the National Basketball Association (NBA) India as managing director.

Colaco will manage the NBA?s India office, based in Mumbai, and oversee all of the league?s business and basketballdevelopment in the
country. He will report to NBA President, International, Heidi Ueberroth.

Ueberroth said, ?Yannick Colaco has the ideal combination of experience and knowledge of the sports landscape in India necessary to lead our expanding operations in the country. Basketball is on the rise in India and we are thrilled to have Yannick lead our extremely talented staff as we build towards the future.?

Colaco will be responsible for leading the growth of the NBA in India. He will continue to build on the league?s efforts to grow participation in basketball in partnership with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI).

Colaco -- who played basketball at the national university level in India -- will work with the league?s media, marketing and merchandising partners to make the NBA more accessible to fans in India. He will also be responsible for growing further the NBA?s social media presence in the country.

He said, ?The sports market in India is poised for significant growth and as basketball participation increases further there is a tremendous opportunity for the NBA. The league has a strong staff in Mumbai and I look forward to joining their efforts to carry out the NBA?s mission to grow basketball in India.?

The NBA?s Mumbai office opened in October 2011 and includes Akash Jain, Senior Director, Business Development and Partnerships; Troy Justice, Senior Director, Basketball Operations, and three other employees.

NBA headquarters in New York also has a cross-departmental team dedicated to NBA growth in India.

Colaco was named Nimbus Sport COO in June 2009 after joining the company in August 2002. During his tenure he worked extensively across a wide range of sports properties and drove Nimbus Sport business to record profitability.

Prior to Nimbus Sport, Yannick began his career at IMG where he worked on a number of prominent event properties including India?s first ATP Tour Event, Asian PGA Tour Events and the Indian Fashion Week.

The NBA is committed to growing basketball in India and
has hosted more than 450 events in 10 cities since 2008. The league has marketing partnerships in India with adidas, Coca-Cola, Nike, Reebok and Spalding.

NBA has merchandise widely available in 200 adidas locations. Earlier this season, NBA announced a new television partnership with Multi Screen Media?s Sony Six channel providing fans in India the most comprehensive NBA programming and game coverage.

MUMBAI: Following the successful conduct of the first season of World Series Hockey, Nimbus and Indian Hockey Federation have announced the dates for the second season. The world?s biggest hockey league will be played from 15 December to 20 January 2013.

Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, "We are delighted to announce the dates of World Series Hockey Season 2. Season 1 was a resounding success for all the stakeholders - players, commercial partners, franchise owners and above all the hockey fans."

IHF president R K Shetty said, "World Series Hockey has clearly emerged as the biggest hockey league in the world and the second biggest sports league in India after IPL. The second season will be bigger and better. We will shortly announce a host of new initiatives along with the format and schedule."

According to Nimbus, the inaugural season of World Series Hockey reached viewers in over 30 countries on television and over 65 countries on YouTube. The unique television tune-ins in India was over 32 million.

The five week long inaugural tournament created unprecedented buzz in terms of daily prime time action on television and record fan walk-ins in the stadium. An aggressive 360-degree marketing campaign and extensive media coverage resulted in high awareness and consumption of WSH.

MUMBAI: India?s leading event management firm Wizcraft has been appointed to conceptualise and produce the opening ceremony for the Bridgestone World Series Hockey in Chandigarh on 29 February.

Wizcraft has organised the opening ceremonies of mega sports events like the 2011 World Cup, IPL and 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The opening ceremony will feature Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, singer Mika, performer Neha Dhupia, ?Rockstar? singer Harshdeep Kaur, and many others.

Bollywood superstar Saif Ali Khan said, "I look forward to being a part of the opening ceremony of World Series Hockey. The association of Agent Vinod with this action-packed event was more of an emotional reason as my grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, represented India in hockey. Our national sport has been ignored for a while and an initiative like this will ensure the sport is given its due attention and will resonate well with the youth of India.?

Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, ?We have put together a star-studded opening ceremony to match the scale of any global sporting event. This is a first for Hockey in India and the grand opening will be a perfect cocktail of unmatched entertainment and top drawer sporting action. Wizcraft has extensive experience in putting together international acts and has worked on the ICC World Cup and IPL. We are going to dazzle the audience in the stadium and viewers across the world with a spectacular opening ceremony.?

Wizcraft International Director Sabbas Joseph said, ?This is just the boost Hockey required and I am glad Wizcraft will play an important role in launching a landmark sporting property like WSH.?

The Bridgestone World Series Hockey will be held from 29 February to 2 April.

The eight venues for the inaugural edition of the league are Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Jalandhar, Mumbai and Pune. Chandigarh Comets will face-off against Bhopal Badshahs in the first tie of the tournament on their home ground.

MUMBAI: Will World Series Hockey go the Indian Cricket League way? That is a matter of conjecture but if one is to go by Hockey India?s new strategy of launching its own league, one can hardly disagree that the ?official? body is following in the footsteps of its cricket compatriot BCCI in ensuring that the WSH doesn?t take root.

HI, the sole recognised governing body of hockey in India, is planning to start its own domestic franchise league next year, which is expected to feature Indian as well as international players and would have the backing of world hockey governing body, FIH.

?We are already in talks with the FIH and things are nearing the final stage. Our league will be a permanent window on the annual international calendar. FIH will ensure that there will be no international action during that time. That means the best players from across the world will be free to participate in the league that will most likely be held in January-February 2013,? Indian Express quotes HI secretary Narinder Batra as saying.

Batra said that the HI will make an official announcement in a couple of days. Like WSH, the HI league will also have eight teams and will be launched next year. He also clarified that players wouldn?t be pressurised to join the league.

The move is clearly aimed at weaning away Indian players from the rival WSH by creating an alternative that is if the HI?s proposed league fructifies which none other than Nimbus will testify is easier said than done. However, it needs to be seen whether players who have signed contract with Nimbus will stay loyal or not.

For the record, the WSH is backed by Indian Hockey Federation, the erstwhile governing body of hockey in India before it was unceremoniously suspended on charges of corruption, and is marketed by Harish Thawani-promoted Nimbus Sport. The WSH involving eight city-based teams will begin 29 February and will run till 2 April.

The sword of instability still hangs over the WSH as the participation of Indian players who are currently part of the national team is still uncertain with the reports that the players are yet to receive payments that was supposed to be paid a week ahead of the tournament.

Nimbus has cleared the air by saying that players who turn up for the camps of their respective teams will get their payments as soon as they join.

"Those in the national team right now simply have to send in a letter confirming their participation in WSH and saying that they will join their respective teams after the Olympic qualifiers. The moment they join their teams, they will get their money,? Nimbus Sport COO YannickColaco told the paper.

MUMBAI: The organisers of World Series Hockey (WSH) and IHF have announced new date. This will now start on 29 February 2012. The final of the event will be held on 1 April a few days before the start of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The decision happened after Hockey India announced a camp for the players ahead of the Olympic Qualifiers event. That camp was clashing with the original dates for WSH which was supposed to have kicked off on 17 December 2011.

The case went to the court. The Delhi High court had issued a stay on the PIL filed by a coach Joachim Caravalho who is involved with WSH. Carvalho?s lawyer had said that Hockey India?s camp, which is to be held to prepare the players for the Olympics for 71 days, was organised with the sole purpose of preventing them from participating in WSH. He had said that it was illegal on the part of Hockey India to threaten disqualification of those players participating in the tournament. Recently Hockey India had produced letters signed by players saying that they wanted to take part in the camp ahead of the Olympic qualifiers.

As far as the new dates for WSH are concerned IHF president RK Shetty said, "We are extremely saddened by the intimidation tactics employed by Hockey India to try and deprive Indian hockey players of an opportunity to earn a living from the sport of hockey. As everyone is well aware, the original schedule for WSH was made on the basis that the National prep camp for the Olympic qualifiers was to start on the 24th of January. This date was communicated by HI officials in writing to players as far back as March this year. Unfortunately, HI chose to reschedule the camp to the 11th of December with the obvious intention of disturbing the players and their preparations for WSH. This re scheduling was done after the announcement of WSH dates.

"The intimidation tactics being used by HI are shameful and it?s a pity that our players had to be put through this. With the express intent of protecting our national players from further harassment from HI, the IHF has requested WSH to take the high ground and adjust the dates for WSH. We are pleased to confirm that WSH has accepted the request and the Event will now commence in February after the completion of India?s Olympic qualifiers on 26 February."

Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, "The primary objective of WSH is the reinvigoration of the sport of Hockey in India. The players are a very important stakeholder of Indian Hockey and post the request from IHF (on behalf of the players) we have had detailed consultation with our sponsors, franchises, team officials, match officials and other administers of the sport of hockey. We are pleased to confirm the unanimous support of all our stakeholders to the adjustment of WSH dates and we look forward to the launch of this historic event on the 29th of February 2012."

Delhi Wizards owner Sabbas Joseph said, "I strongly believe that WSH would change the face of hockey as we know it, and they have proved it once again through this decision to reschedule the tournament. This will ensure the players are not faced with an ?either or? scenario and as a franchise owner, I share the vision of WSH and IHF and would like to extend complete support towards making WSH a world class event."

Karnataka Lions owner Sagar Pol Chowdhury said, "Our stance has always been that the youth of India will definitely see a new connect with hockey through WSH and this decision is a shining example of that. A league that treats its players with care is bound to succeed. I fully back this difficult decision made by WSH and look forward to providing the right training platform for the Karnataka Lions to perform to potential in February".

MUMBAI: In what could be a setback to Nimbus? World Series Hockey (WSH) initiative, six top Indian players have withdrawn from the league which starts on 17 December.

A letter issued by Hockey India bears the signature of all the six players. They are goalkeepers Bharat Chetri and PR Sreejesh, drag flicker Sandeep Singh, defender Sardar Singh, and forwards Tushar Khandker and Yuvraj Walmiki.

WSH takes place at the same time as the national camp for the Olympic qualifiers.

The letter reads, "We are not playing in the World Series Hockey event and we will be attending the national camp in Delhi for the Olympic qualifiers on 11 December, 2011 until February 2012. We will be available for selection in the national team for the Olympic qualifiers.

"We signed the contract with World Series Hockey under the impression that WSH will not force us to play and ask us to leave for the national camp. We play for our country and that is a matter of honour and pride for us."

The players have requested the WSH organisers to postpone the event.

"We appeal to World Series Hockey to postpone their tournament after the qualifiers in the national interest".

However, Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco has said that the players have not sent any communication to the agency regarding this decision. "We find it extremely odd that players would have chosen to ?write? to a third party to withdraw from World Series Hockey, especially since this third party has nothing to do with this historic event. We thus are unable to judge whether this supposed letter is a fabrication or an extortion.

"What we do know for a fact is that not a single WSH player has communicated in person or email to us regarding their non availability for the inaugural edition of World Series Hockey. In fact, we have had repeated confirmation from all our players that they are extremely excited to be a part of this event which will finally give the sport of hockey its proper due. In addition, WSH players have been in constant touch with their franchise coaches even during the draft process (28 November)."

"We look forward to working closely with the all the stakeholders of Indian hockey, including the players, franchisees, coaches and fans, to staging a hugely successful inaugural edition of World Series Hockey," Colaco said.