New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- Around the time the MRF Pace Foundation was conceived, Sumedh Shah, a Bombay-based advertising professional with more than two decades of work experience, teamed up with Sunil Gavaskar to establish Professional Management Group (PMG), India's first sports event management and sponsorship company, in 1985.

By this time, Gavaskar was a best-selling author, a print columnist, an entrepreneur, an ambassador of multiple brands, and an activist who in the 1970s had taken up issues related to the players' remuneration and welfare with the board-all in addition to being a cricketing legend. Mindful of the limited career-span of a sportsperson, he had tapped other legitimate avenues to supplement his earnings.

Among PMG's ma...