Reloading the sport: India fires up a shooting league after Olympic high

Shooting

India’s sporting calendar just got busier. Come November, India and the world’s best shooting stars will go up against each other as the sport gets its own IPL.

Shooting reshaped India’s Olympic story with a record three medals at Paris 2024, surpassing the previous best of two at London 2012. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is now aiming to rewrite the script at home with the Shooting League of India (SLI).

SLI will be a quick-fire event, so to speak, and NRAI hopes that it will do to shooting what the Indian Premier League did for cricket — more visibility for athletes and the sport and also money. SLI draws from the International Shooting Sport Federation’s Olympic format, NRAI president Kalikesh Singh Deo said.

“But we have only adopted the final format, where you have a mixed team format and you have one team playing against the other. It is in every Olympic final for the rifle pistol that those who hit 16 points first win. Matches will run for 25 minutes each," Deo told Moneycontrol.

League loaded

There will be six Olympic disciplines — air rifle, 10m air pistol, 25m sports pistol, 50m 3 Positions, trap and skeet.

Each team will comprise six men and women, with a maximum of four foreigners and a minimum of two junior players. The players will be grouped in four tiers — elite champions, world elite, national champions and junior and youth champions.

"The remaining player selection will be left to the discretion of the franchise. There will be four to eight teams in the league," Deo said.

There has been interest from people who already own franchises in other leagues and there are others who are also looking to own teams, he said.

"It is a mix of corporate, celebrity, and individuals. Owning a team in SLI will (cost) far less than owning a cricket team," Deo said

The first edition of the league is likely to be held at Delhi’s Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.

"The number of matches would depend on the total number of franchises, but the number of days is capped at 12 days. The calendar we have is from November 20 to December 2. It will be between one World Championship (in Cairo) and a World Cup (in Doha). We don't want to make it too tiresome for our athletes or for the athletes who come from different countries,” Deo added.

Player pool

More than 70-80 top international athletes from around 26 countries have shown interest, while over 400-500 domestic athletes have registered for the auction process.

"We intend to transcend beyond the 95,000 registered shooters that we already have in the NRAI system," Deo said.

India has one of the best shooting stars but they don't earn enough. This is primarily because of the lack of visibility, the NRAI president said.

"One of the main reasons to actually inculcate this league is to ensure that we give them that visibility. Give them a sustained relationship with corporations. Ensure that they not only become legends in terms of the shooting community, but household names within Indian society," he said.

The league will help younger players get more visibility. "We are not only looking at the 2028 Olympics but also 2032 and 2036. Our athletes who are going to play in 2032 are right now 16 or 17 years old. As a body, we have already started to identify some of the potential athletes," Deo said.

Lack of visibility

While shooting is probably one of the most successful sports for India, most people see it as an Olympic event, which is once every four years.

India got its first individual Olympic gold medal in shooting. In the last two or three decades, if you look at the ranking of teams globally, India ranks among the top 2 or 3 teams in the World Cup. Argentina recently held a World Cup and we were ranked number 2. In Peru, we were ranked number 3. It's consistent even in the Olympics."

As the first-ever franchise-based model-shooting league in the world, SLI will give greater visibility to the sport and improve the financial viability of the athletes and the sports ecosystem.

Triggering growth

To begin with, NRAI is investing money in the league and, at a later stage, may think of getting in some direct partners.

"We also intend to have the execution and the broadcasting done completely professionally. We are in advanced talks with certain broadcasters," Deo said.

Gun makers, ammo manufacturers and those making supplementary targets, jackets and apparel could sponsor the league.

"There is a whole plethora of audiences who enjoy the outdoors, camping and hiking, and all of these activities involve the sport of shooting. Therefore, there is a large gambit of potential sponsors that we are engaging with. We have got a title sponsor, associate sponsors, and then going down the circle, we also intend to associate with many global sponsors," he said.