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.