Padma Shri & Khel Ratna Dhanraj Pillay, Former Captain- Indian National Hockey Team. He is also a member of the Ad Hoc Committee of Indian Hockey Federation
His magic is timeless and he can pierce through any defence, any time. His dribbling is so fast that he can go past players even 10 years younger to him. Most important of all, Dhanraj still has that passion, hunger and love for the game
Dhanraj Pillai is the only Indian to have played in 3 Olympics, 3 World Cups and 4 Asian Games. He is the recipient of the Arjuna Puraskar (1995) and the K.K. Birla Award (1998-99) for excellence in Sports. He has also received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award (1999) and the Padma Shri (2000). Dhanraj was the only Indian player to figure in the World Eleven side during the 1994 World Cup at Sydney.
Kamlesh Mehta
Director – 11Sports Pvt. Ltd.
Kamlesh was the captain of the Indian team from 1982 to 1989 and was the highest ranked Indian player in Asia, the Commonwealth and the world. He played in the final of the national championships on eleven occasions between 1981 and 1994, winning the title eight times. He was runner-up on three occasions.
Kamlesh represented India in seven world championships, eight Asian championships, two Asian Games, four South Asian Federation games, two Olympic Games and many other official and friendly competitions in India and abroad. His best performance came in the SAF Games in 1991 at Colombo where he won seven gold and four silver medals.
He won the World Bank Championship at the Isle of Man (UK) in 1989. He won all four gold medals at the Pentangular International Championships in 1983. Mehta has coached the Indian table tennis team on multiple occasions. His was first appointed in 1998 to coach the national team at the Osaka Asian Games.Later, he assisted the chief coach Massimo Constantini at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. In March 2017, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, appointed him as the national observer for table tennis.
Dr. (H.C) Deepa Malik
Padma Shri, Khel Ratna, Arjuna Awardee
Founder – Wheeling Happiness Foundation
“It is all right to accept failures. I accept that the 2/3rd of my body doesn’t work, but I don’t accept that the 1/3rd of the body will not take me higher and make me an achiever. I focus more on solutions and here I am, the first Indian female medalist in the Paralympics. If I can do it, anybody can! Everyone has got problems. Therefore, addressing failures is very important for you to succeed in life. That is why The Edge Program is unique because we are talking about failures; Learning from it!”
Deepa Malik is India’s first Paralympic Medallist. With only 1/3rd of her body functioning, the motto of her remarkable life is Ability beyond Disability. She is the recipient of as many as five honours from the Government of India: Padma Shri, Arjuna Award, President’s National Role Model award, Women Transforming India Award and First Ladies Award. With a count of 23 international medals and 68 national and state level medals, she has proved that one should focus more on solutions and overcome failures.
Abhijit Kunte
Founder of Kinder Sports
Founder of Kinder Sports in Pune which works with schools to include sports in daily school curriculum and provides training in different sports and fitness methods for schools
4th Grandmaster, created & developed software of 2lac different chess moves.
Viren Rasquinha
CEO – Olympic Gold Quest
“I’ve learnt a lot from my failures, maybe even more than from my victories. One thing sports has taught me is to rise from setbacks. Hockey being a team sport, I learnt quite a few management principles from what I did on the hockey field and applied it at my workplace as the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest. The Edge is a classic example of amalgamation of management concepts clubbed with learning from Sports.”
Viren Rasquinha is an Olympian and former Captain of Indian Hockey team. He is the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest and is fulfilling his dream of winning Olympic medals through the 130+ athletes OGQ supports. He has completed MBA from Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad in 2009. He is an Informative and Inspiring Speaker and member of the PMO Task Force that prepared India’s plans for the next three Olympics in 2020, 2024 and 2028. He holds expertise in Athlete Management, Sports Management, Marketing, and Fundraising and possesses qualities such as leadership skills, teamwork, perseverance, endurance, and strength ingrained into his personality.
Aparna Popat
Arjuna Awardee
Olympic Former Indian Badminton Player
9 times national champion, Handled transition of Indian Association of Olympics; Grassroot Development, Aparna Popat took up the coaching role for the Mumbai Masters in the first edition of the Indian Badminton League
Aparna Popat is a former Indian badminton player. She was India’s national champion for a record equalling nine times when she won all the senior national championships between 1997 and 2006
Jatin Paranjape
Founder & CEO – Khelomore
Jatin Paranjape is an Indian Cricketer, a left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm bowler. Jatin Paranjpe was a middle-order batsman who played briefly at the international level in 1998, before an ankle injury forced him out of the national team. It took Jatin seven years from his Ranji debut in 1991/92 season to get the attention of the national selectors.
He has been confined to domestic cricket ever since his injuries. After being based in Netherlands for Nike Football, Jatin returned to India with Nike Cricket in 2014. He is one of the Current national cricket team selectors. In 2016, he founded Khelomore and is currently the Founder & CEO of Khelomore. KheloMore is a digital platform bringing together young athletes and coaches/academies online for an exceptional performance off-line. Up and running since April 2017, KheloMore is all about helping you, as a parent, explore your child’s first step into the land of sports, or further enhance their game-skills. Not just that, KheloMore is also about turning your school-time sporty memories into live action and fitness routine, for the busy professional in you!
Amol Muzumdar
Ex-Batting Coach for South Africa
Amol Muzumdar is Former Indian Cricketer, Batting Coach- Rajasthan Royals & Interim Batting Coach- South African Cricket Team. He has played domestic cricket for Mumbai & Assam. In the 2006–07 season, he was appointed captain and led the team to victory in the Ranji Trophy. He is someone who has held the record for the most runs scored in the Ranji Trophy, India’s premier domestic first-class cricket competition. He also played for the India A side in the 1994–95 season alongside Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. Amol has had stints as Batting Coach for the India Under-19 cricket team, the India Under-23 cricket team and the Netherlands cricket team.
