P. Gopichand: Giving flight to Indian badminton

Pullela Gopichand with the victorious Indian badminton players after the 2010 Commonwealth Games (Getty Images)

Indian badminton has been the scene of quite a few highs in the last couple of years. In that time, we have seen a whole host of names rise to prominence.

The most recent of them is P.V. Sindhu, the lanky 18-year-old teenager from Hyderabad. But, of course, she is just the latest in the line of fine badminton talents to emerge from the conveyor belt of the Gopichand Badminton Academy.

Over the last few years, we have seen the likes of Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap and Sindhu burst onto the international scene and consistently compete at the major tournaments.

Much of India’s recent successes can be attributed to Pullela Gopichand. It all started with him.

Gopichand was India’s biggest badminton star to emerge, male or female, after Prakash Padukone. When he won the prestigious All England Championships in 2001, most of India’s current crop of young badminton players were still in school. Little did they realize then, that not only were they witnessing a great champion in action, but their coach to be in the near future.

In the world of sport, there are some that dazzle us with their achievements as a player. There are some others, who through their coaching make us stand up in admiration and render a polite round of applause. And, there are some who do both. Coach Gopichand happens to be one of those individuals to breathe that rarefied air.

Gopichand did not do it for the legacy or for the tributes that he hoped he would get well past his playing career. He did it because of his love for the sport. He did it because he wanted the next breed of shuttlers from India to be world beaters.

He was only 27 when he won the All-England title, yet he knew that he didn’t have many years left as he was struggling with injuries. All he wanted was for the next generation of Indian badminton players to have better coaching and world-class training facilities, so that one day, India too could have multiple players competing for honours at the highest level.

And that’s how Gopichand became ‘Coach Gopichand’. He got to work with building the academy after he received 5 acres of land in the Gachibowli area for this project from the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2003.

He approached Yonex for sponsorship and also tried his best to rope in foreign coaches into the mould. Nimmagadda Prasad, a relative of his, contributed about $500,000 initially and assisted in raising the rest of the money.

A total of $2 million was the expected amount needed. But, only $1.75 million could be raised.

Sportsmen and women are often accused of not laying it all out, not giving it their all. Gopichand gave it everything and then some more. Knowing that his dreams of a world class badminton facility in India hung in the balance, he decided to mortgage his family home to try and make up the remainder of the funds necessary to complete the project. Eventually, the academy was completed in 2008 at a cost of $2.5 million.