Behind every sporting event that you watch on television or in the stadium, there are lots of people who work in a team for the success of the event !

Sekhar Sridhar, our next pathbreaker, Customer Support Coordinator at Cricket Australia, supports queries related to the cricket management software platform which is used by state bodies like Cricket Victoria, Cricket New South Wales, local clubs and associations etc.

Sekhar talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about making a switch from marketing to sales and then transitioning to a career in sports management, influenced by the first IPL edition !

For students, there are plenty of opportunities to tap into, behind the scenes and by volunteering in sports and events, which is an excellent starting point if you want to make a career in sports. 

Sekhar, Your background?

I was born in Nagercoil in Kanyakumari District in 1985 and lived in Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Coimbatore, in that order, before returning to Chennai to complete my high school. 

Both my father and mother worked in the erstwhile State Bank of Travancore (now merged into State Bank of India). Their jobs, especially my father’s, involved frequent transfers and promotions involving moving between different cities. With limited financial resources to pursue any specific extra-curricular activities, I had to prioritize academic excellence. My father had a keen interest in cricket, having played in the Chennai city league in the 1970s before moving into banking. He was also a fan of the West Indies of the 1970s and 80s and this interest rubbed off on me as I began following cricket myself starting with the 1992 World Cup and moving in depth with the 1996 one. Thus began my interest in cricket. 

What did you do for graduation/post graduation?

After completing high school in Chennai, I pursued my Bachelors in Industrial Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai. After graduating in 2007, I worked with Infosys for about 3 years as a Senior Systems Engineer. My role was largely in technical support for software development and testing in the telecom business unit, and I was based in Bengaluru and for some time, in Pune. 

From 2010-12, I pursued an MBA from Bharathidasan Institute of Management in Trichy. 

I also did a second master’s degree in Sports Management from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia during 2020-21. 

What made you choose such an offbeat, unconventional and unusual career?

I chose engineering at the advice of three of my elder cousins who also did the same. The marks I secured in my 12th and the subsequent state entrance exam were sufficient to get me admission into a prestigious government engineering college and it was only a question of choosing the course at admission time. Industrial Engineering was a low hanging fruit to pick and as one of the three cousins studied the same course in the 1990s, I gathered all information about the course, found it attractive and opted for it. As for my MBA, I built it on top of my technical skills (industrial engineering) and my Infosys work experience which equipped me with business skills. 

How did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path.

It was not until 2016 that I started thinking of a career that I really wanted – sports management. During my MBA, in 2011, I did my summer internship with Britannia Industries Ltd as a market researcher surveying hotels, restaurants, offices and factories to identify sales potential for dairy products. This foundation in sales got me a full-time job in Godrej Storage Solutions as Manager, Sales and Marketing, before graduating. 

For about 3.5 years in Godrej, I was involved in marketing industrial storage products to factories, in assistance with the sales managers all over India. 

In 2015, I made a switch from marketing to a sales role with Wipro Furniture Ltd. It was a risky move as I had little frontline sales experience but somehow managed to convince my interviewers about my potential. It was only after I got on with the job that I realized that sales was not my cup of tea. 

During my engineering, I volunteered in the organization of literary and cultural festivals in the college. These helped me develop my team working, organizational and communication skills, and a passion for the behind-the-scenes of events. I continued to follow cricket avidly and after the first IPL in 2008, the dream of working in the management side of cricket looked promising. In fact, while watching people wearing lanyards and working in famous stadiums, on television, during the inaugural Champions League T20 in 2009, the dream of working in sport management was seeding within me. However, I did not know where to start then, since I did not know anyone in the sports industry. I focused on getting an MBA admission which finally came to fruition in 2010. 

In 2016, Wipro had to let me go from my sales job, though they did it in a kind way by giving me 2-3 months to find another job. It was while contemplating my next move that I decided to bring back and realize my 2009 dream of working in sport. As a first step, I undertook the online course, Cricket Business Management from Sport Management Worldwide during my last couple of months in Wipro. One of the modules of this course involved doing informational interviews with people in cricket and I was fortunate to find people who not only gave their inputs but also helped me find other people in cricket. The course concluded in September 2016 and one of the people I interviewed offered me a freelance sales job in his start-up and also helped me intern in the area of Sports Sustainability. The start-up unfortunately shut down in January 2017 and I completed my internship the following month while restarting my sports industry job application process.  

How did you get your first break?

In January 2017, Gen-Next Cricket Institute, a cricket academy mentored by Indian cricketer Ashwin Ravichandran, advertised for interns to work with them during the months April-May. I sent in my resume, got an interview and was successful. For 3 months from March to May, I was involved in marketing the academy’s coaching programs and summer tournament, assisting with enrolment of players, and coordinating operations for the summer tournament. My efforts helped me land an additional one month in the internship to coordinate coaching operations for a special camp involving a visiting team of kids from the US. With the academy growing as a business, my efforts won me a full-time role as Manager, Operations and Marketing in July 2017 and this was my first break into the sport industry. 

I worked with Gen-Next till Jan 2020 by which time I had decided to take my sport management career to the next level to develop a global perspective, and take up higher challenges. Pursuing a second Masters degree in a country where sport management is well-established was a step in this regard and I chose Deakin University in the sports capital of the world, Melbourne. This was also a break for me in many ways. 

Deakin University’s admission criteria was just a Bachelors degree although any amount of experience in sports is always valued. A clear statement of purpose outlining your career goals and reason for pursuing sports management was mandatory during the visa application stage. As I already had a Masters degree, I had to highlight my work with Gen-Next Cricket Institute in my SOP.

My course involved a total of 16 subjects of which 13 were theoretical units across different areas of sports such as industry structure, facility & event management, organization behaviour, law, governance, ethics, marketing etc. with the objective of providing a well-rounded perspective of various aspects of the sport industry. The other 3 units were electives which we could pursue in the form of internships in the industry or as subjects from other disciplines. I studied for the most part of my course online during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. I am generally an enthusiastic participant in class discussions and since online learning was not going to change that aspect, I had no difficulties in coping with online study. 

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

Challenge 1: Few to zero connections in the sports industry. The first person I was thinking of reaching out to, had done a cricket workshop in early 2016 and while I attended that workshop, I did not make efforts to connect with the organizer then. I had some hesitation in asking him for help when I was making the career shift but I overcame it, asked him for help and to my surprise, he not only helped me but also connected me to other people from the industry. I learnt never to inhibit myself from asking for help from people, as that can help with growing one’s networks. 

Challenge 2

My parents had concerns that I was not in a high-paying job and it took more than a year for them to feel convinced about my new career journey. 

Challenge 3

The concerns around pursuing a second Master’s degree at the age of 34. Fortunately at Deakin University, age was never a barrier. Class participation, critical thinking, networks, and understanding of the Australian sports industry mattered more and I was able to satisfactorily focus my attention on these priorities rather than get worked up about my age. 

Where do you work now? Tell us about your current role

I currently work with Cricket Australia as customer support helpdesk coordinator in the Community Cricket department. I am responsible for resolving queries related to the cricket management software platform which is used by state bodies like Cricket Victoria, Cricket New South Wales etc., local clubs and association administrators, players, scorers, umpires, and volunteers. The job requires problem solving and customer service skills accompanied by a comprehensive knowledge of the software platform. 

What are the skills required for your role? How did you acquire them?

My experiences as Sales and Marketing Manager with Godrej Storage Solutions helped me develop product management skills which enabled me to understand how customers engage with the cricket management software application. My experiences at Gen-Next helped me understand that every customer’s problem is different and that my solutions have to be tailored to those problems.

The community cricket season in Australia typically runs from September to March and a typical day in-season involves handling a variety of queries like entering or editing scores after games, selecting teams for upcoming games, awarding points for rain affected games, proactively checking in with associations which have upcoming competitions, interacting with the digital products team to pass on feedback from customers, to name a few. 

Additionally, I also do scoring and video setups for Prahran CC, a premier cricket club in Melbourne, on Saturdays. This work is a practical extension of the work I do at Cricket Australia and gives me first-hand experience of being involved in community cricket. 

Working in Australian cricket has been a lifelong dream for me and I am fortunate to have realized this dream with Cricket Australia which makes every day on the job highly enjoyable. 

How does your work benefit society? 

My work impacts several types of community cricket stakeholders – state bodies, club and association administrators, players, scorers, umpires and team managers – by providing them with memorable usage experiences, thereby fostering further participation in Australia’s national game. 

Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!

In September 2022, a participant originally from Pakistan and living in Sydney, was struggling to register for the 2022-23 season as she could not speak smooth English. She only had her mobile phone with her and was trying to get help from someone around her, but in vain. She called the help desk and, noticing her struggling to speak English, I switched to Hindi and with the help of her club’s administrator in a conference call, I guided her step by step to create her online account, get it verified, go through the registration steps and get her registered in the software platform. She thanked me profusely for the help. While she was registering for her local cricket club during the call, she actually went on to play in the women’s premier grade, which is one level below state cricket, as well as emerged among the top 5 wicket takers in the premier competition. The joy of seeing people who I help go on to achieve success is unparalleled. 

Your advice to students based on your experience?

Behind every sporting event that you watch on television or in the stadium, there are lots of people who work in a team for the success of the event. There are plenty of opportunities to tap into, behind the scenes and volunteering in sports and events is an excellent starting point. 

Focus on building your networks. Learn to make connections with people. The worst thing that can happen when you ask for help is that some people will say no. Campus placements are good but only for the short-term. Once you are out in the industry, it is your network which will help you level up in your career. 

Learning new skills is super easy these days with just click of a mouse. There are heaps of free software tools available for you to learn new skills. Make best use of technology and never stop learning. (P.S: I made the below career timeline using the canva.com website)

Future Plans?

My goal is to constantly build new skills, work in leadership roles and travel the globe at upcoming global sport events like the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and different sports’ world cups.