India, March 22 -- Vinit Karnik, head of media agency GroupM's division that straddles entertainment, e-sports and sports, is hard to rile even if you oppose his view that India's sports industry is not just about cricket. Karnik has been tracking the sports industry for a decade and publishing his findings in an annual report on India's burgeoning business of sports. The report analyses trends from the perspective of sponsorships, athlete endorsements and media spends by brands. Every year, Karnik claims that non-cricket sports (football, kabaddi, badminton, hockey et al) are also emerging though their contribution to the total sports revenue hovers around 15%. The latest report released on Tuesday shows that emerging sports revenue declined by a marginal 1% (to Rs 2,065 crore) in 2023 over 2022 while cricket revenue grew 13% in the same period....