Anand Yalvigi has joined Havas Sports India as General Manager. He will be based in Mumbai and will be reporting to Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media India. Prior to this appointment, Yalvigi was Business Head of Network Sports & VGC Sports. He had also launched his own company by promoting Hattrick Sports Management in Mumbai.
On his new role, Yalvigi said, “Havas Sports has the tradition of sports marketing and has a base globally. I feel the Indian market has still not matured in terms of sports marketing. I want to utilise my experience/ strengths along with the support of the global team to help the Indian market mature and provide unique and viable sports marketing solutions for various brands in India.”
On Yalvigi’s appointment, Nayyar said, “Anand is a rare instance of a professional cricketer in the field of sports marketing. He is a former first class cricketer who played for Mumbai, Karnataka and Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy and has led and promoted few sports marketing ventures. He has been instrumental in creating unique concepts and executing them for various clients like Anchor, Emami, Zee, DNA, Tata, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Visage Images, Mid-Day, Radio One, PCI, Headlines Today and Aaj Tak among others.”
Anand Yalvigi’s work highlights are : Mumbai Not Out, a charity dinner for the Mumbai blast victims of 2006, where the Indian team along with the corporates joined hands to raise funds for the victims; sponsorships of various Ranji teams and the conceptualisation of the Zee Super Sixes. He was also successful in launching Hattrick Cricket Academy in Mumbai, where quite a few of his students have been representing the Mumbai Junior teams.
Yalvigi shares a great working relationship with cricketers like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajit Wadekar and Arvinda De Silva, to name a few.