She walked off the track, tears streaming, and said the most honest sentence I've probably ever heard from an eight-year-old: "I've never lost before."

Not "I lost." Not "that child was faster." Just — I've never lost before. Like it hadn't occurred to her that this was even possible.

That sentence has stayed with me for years. Because that moment, as hard as it was to watch, was probably worth more to her than every race she'd won before it.

So here's the question I keep coming back to in my work with schools: what are we actually measuring when we call a child a "winner"?

Is it the scoreboard? Or is it whether a shy eight-year-old spoke up in a huddle for the first time? Whether a child who was scared of being on the sports field now is a team player? Whether parents show up not to watch their child win, but just to watch their child play?

I don't think win-loss records are wrong. I just think they could reflect so much more...

So tell me, as a parent, a school leader, a coach — what tells you a child won?

I shared this during my conversation with Shane Watson.

Shane spoke about how his parents expected him to work hard, but he never felt pressure from them to perform. He knew they supported him.

He also described how easily adults can send a different message. A child wins a race and receives a huge celebration. In a faster race, they finish last and the response is much quieter, even if their effort was just as strong.

For schools and parents, that raises a useful question: what are young players hearing from us after they compete?

We want them to improve. We also want them to feel comfortable discussing mistakes and returning to the next session ready to learn.

The timing of feedback matters. So does recognising preparation, effort and behaviour alongside results.

As we develop KPL, these conversations belong alongside the competition itself. Teachers, coaches and parents all influence how a young person experiences school sport.

Students will hear behind-the-scenes stories from AB, explore what makes a great teammate and leave with one behaviour they can practise in their own school teams.

For teachers and sports staff, the session offers a starting point for conversations about supporting teammates, handling mistakes and contributing beyond individual performance.

Schools can share the event with students and parents, or use its themes in a follow-up team discussion.

Head to the event page to RSVP. 👇
https://community.kabuni.com/events?content_type=event&content_id=OwJGCFN9jTnuUe1

Sourav Ganguly joined Nimesh Patel in Kolkata to launch the Kabuni Premier League, with schools, corporates and investors present to hear the vision for School Cricket.

It was Kabuni’s biggest day yet. For school leaders, the important question is what that vision means for their own students and sports programmes.

The KPL model brings together school-owned franchises and corporate-owned franchises that partner with schools to form teams. Super Coaches are part of that structure, connecting the competition with experience from the professional game.

For a school considering involvement, there are practical questions to work through: how participation fits around school commitments, how players are selected, what the school is responsible for and what support is available.

The Kolkata launch brought people involved in those decisions into the same room. Schools contribute an essential perspective because they understand their students, staff and the day-to-day realities of school sport.

We’ll use this KPL section to share information that helps schools understand the programme and consider where they might fit.

If your school is exploring KPL, what would you need clarified first?

You can leave a question below or raise it directly with the Kabuni team.

Let’s try that together.

Pick one small cricket goal for this week. Something you can work on, such as:

• Asking your coach for help with one skill.

• Staying focused during a fielding drill.

• Encouraging a teammate after a mistake.

• Planning your schoolwork so you have time for practice.

Comment: “This week, I’m working on ______.”

We’ll check in on Thursday. You can share what you tried, what was difficult or a question you still have.

See someone working on the same thing? Reply and compare notes.

He was living in Hobart, where he’d moved to get a chance to play first-class cricket. Now an Australian selector wanted to see him.

Boon arrived with news: Watson was joining Australia’s Test tour of South Africa.

He would travel as the squad’s 15th player, learn how the team worked and prepare for a possible opportunity in the one-day series afterwards.

At eight, Watson had watched Australia on TV while his mum did the ironing. He remembered telling her he wanted to be one of those players.

Twelve years later, he was packing to join them.

Then came the airport lounge.

In Sydney, Watson walked in to find Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist among the players gathered there.

The cricketers he’d grown up admiring were now the people he would travel with.

But before any of that, he’d called his parents. They were the first people he told after hearing the news.

His dad wasn’t someone who showed much emotion. Watson explained that, in their family, a handshake from his father could mean as much as a huge hug. He knew how much the news meant to him.

His parents had spent years helping him get there: taking him to training, supporting his cricket and making sure he worked hard at school too. A school mentor had spent hours with him in the nets.

Later, his parents travelled the world to watch him play for Australia. They got to share the dream they’d helped him chase.

You’ve just got the news you’ve been working towards for years. Who’s your first call, and what do you say?

Shane Watson shared a simple trick: when he starts overthinking, he plays a song in his head to help him focus again.

He even remembers having catchy songs stuck in his head during some of his best performances.

What would YOUR song be?

Something calming or something that fires you up? Drop the song + artist below. Any language, any genre. 👇

As I write this, I am on day 50 in India.

Before I arrived, I made a promise to myself, my family and our team. I would not leave India until Kabuni had onboarded 400 schools.

That promise means time away from my wife and four children. It means missed moments at home, long days, constant travel and more uncertainty than I can explain in one post.

But this mission is deeply personal to me.

When I was 12 years old, I was subjected to a racist assault by five groups of children.

Afterwards, I made the decision to join a boxing club.

Boxing transformed my life.

Sport taught me leadership. It taught me how to get up from the floor and continue fighting. It taught me that adversity is not an excuse to give up. It is the moment when you stand up and take a step forward, never backwards.

Cricket helped me build a relationship with my dad. When I moved around the world, sport gave me a community wherever I went. A sports teacher at school also believed in me and helped me recognise more within myself.

Those experiences between the ages of 12 and 16 gave me the grounding for everything that followed. They shaped my character, my resilience and my belief that progress is made by continuing to move forward, especially when life knocks you down.

I still carry those lessons with me today.

They have carried me through every challenge, every setback and every chapter of the journey that has led me here, on day 50 in India, building Kabuni.

That is why the ages of 12 to 16 are so important to our mission.

These are formative years when sport can do far more than develop an athlete. It can shape a young person’s confidence, discipline, leadership, resilience and sense of belonging.

Kabuni exists because every young person deserves the chance to discover what sport can unlock within them.

Our mission is to unlock the true sporting potential in every human being.

We want every child, regardless of geography, wealth, gender or background, to have the opportunity to be seen, measured, coached and believed in.

We are building a platform that balances screen time with PLAYTIME. A platform where real movement becomes measurable progress, confidence, health, learning and opportunity.

And we are beginning where so many great journeys begin.

At school.

On 7 June 2026, we launched Kabuni in Mumbai.

More than 800 people joined us, including over 500 school leaders, to hear our vision for the future of youth sport.

Standing alongside Sourav Ganguly, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Shreyas Iyer was an extraordinary moment. But the most important people in the room were the school leaders, teachers, coaches and young athletes who can turn this vision into reality.

That day was not the finish line.

It was the starting line.

Our work is built around Play, Learn, Coach and Compete.

Play helps young people move more and rediscover the joy of sport.

Learn uses sport to teach knowledge, confidence, character and life skills to students and sports teachers.

Coach combines human expertise with technology to give every athlete meaningful guidance.

Compete creates opportunities for young people to test themselves, represent their schools and be discovered.

But what we build matters only if the values behind it are real.

Our work is guided by the KABUNI Philosophy.

Keep it real.

Make real impact over noise. We focus on what truly matters, cutting through distractions to deliver meaningful results. Every decision and action should create genuine value, not just look good on the surface.

Always Accountable.

Integrity in everything we do. We own our actions, our words and our outcomes. No excuses, no shortcuts. Integrity is not just a value we talk about, it is the standard we hold ourselves to every single day.

Better together.

Progress is collective. We believe that our greatest achievements come when we collaborate, support one another and share in both the challenges and the wins. No one succeeds alone at Kabuni. We grow as a team or we do not grow at all.

Uphold the standard.

Keep the bar high across everything. We never settle for good enough. Every detail, every deliverable and every interaction should reflect the highest standard of quality. The bar does not move down. We rise to meet it.

Nurture Champions.

Great teams are built on great people. We invest in the whole person, their health, their wellbeing, their family and their growth. When our people thrive outside of work, they show up and perform at their best within it. At Kabuni, we do not just build products. We build champions.

Invest wisely.

Think long term and make every penny count. We treat every resource, time, money and energy, as if it were our own, making considered decisions that create lasting impact. Short term thinking has no place here. We always ask what this means for Kabuni’s future.

These are not words for a wall. They are the standards by which I expect this community, our company and me personally to be judged.

This community is where we will share the journey honestly.

You will see the progress, the setbacks, the decisions, the people we meet and the lessons we learn. You will hear from athletes, teachers, coaches, school leaders, parents and students.

I do not want this to become another platform where a company talks at people.

I want it to become a place where we listen, learn and build together.

Our first target is 400 schools.

But the real measure of success will not be a number, a valuation or a headline.

It will be the day a young athlete stands on the greatest stage in world sport and says:

“My journey started at my school on Kabuni.”

That is my why.

That is why I am still in India on day 50.

And that is why I am not going home until the first promise is kept.

Welcome to Kabuni.

Live for the play.