How Gopichand made Hyderabad India's badminton capital

 

Pullela Gopichand's unwavering commitment has made Hyderabad a powerhouse of Indian badminton, a factory which keeps churning out one promising player after another.

PV Sindhu's bronze at the World Championships on Saturday was just the latest in a line of superlative feats achieved by players emerging from coach Gopi's stable.

In fact, this is a feat which has eluded even Saina Nehwal, who under Gopi has won close to 20 international titles, including a bronze at the Olympics. Then there are players like Parupalli Kashyap and RMV Gurusaidutt, who too have started registering impressive wins.

It's a testament to Gopi's unwavering commitment to his wards that Indian shuttlers have won more than two dozen international titles, at times even taking on undisputed giants China. The coach literally eats, sleeps and breathes the game. Just ask his wife, former player PVV Laxmi, or his mother Subbaravamma.

Gopichand owns a palatial house just four kilometers away from his academy, in the plush Jubilee Hills area here. But such is his focus and commitment that the chief coach of the Indian badminton team is seldom home during the day. He arrives at his academy at 4.15 in the morning and leaves the campus only after 7 pm.

Seeing his schedule and unwavering dedication, his worried family at some point decided to move to a rented house closer to the academy, so that Gopi could come home for lunch. But his mother and wife are still complaining.

This is the kind of dedication the 2001 All England champion has put in, in the process changing the face of Indian badminton. When he took over as chief coach in 2006, Gopi was given a four-year term with the aim of helping India do well at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

The results were phenomenal as the shuttlers bagged a rich haul of two gold, a silver and a bronze, an unheard of feat from India's shuttlers till that point.

Even before the Commonwealth Games success, Saina Nehwal - who started training under Gopichand in 2004 - won several international titles. In fact, she became the face of Hyderabad's badminton supremacy, a supremacy which began even before the Gopi era, when the city's shuttlers were known for being successful at the national level.

They would, however, invariably falter on the world stage. Apart from Gopichand and Chetan Anand, not many made a mark on the international circuit. Thanks to Gopi, all that has changed. Today India has a bunch of players in the top 50 of the world rankings. A good number come from the Pullela Gopichand Academy.

With superior training and world-class facilities at their disposal, the performance graph of the PGBA shuttlers has seen an upward curve. With eight international standard courts, a health club, a running track, swimming pool, rehabilitation and wellness centres, the academy has everything that a world-class badminton player needs.

During his playing days, Gopi used to struggle to find good training centres and he realized the success of the Chinese, Indonesians and Malaysians was because of the vastly improved facilities at their disposal.

For a player who lost most of his career to a leg injury, Gopi was determined to create a facility which could offer everything, including injury rehabilitation. He has done just that, that too in the short span of a decade.

But he did not have it easy. In 2003, the then-Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu gave him five acres of land on a 45-year lease. Gopi soon approached Yonex and a few others to construct the academy.

Very few responded but a determined Gopi refused to relent. One day, over a cup of coffee, businessman Nimmagadda Prasad - popularly known as 'Matrix' Prasad - surprised Gopi by offering him a donation of about Rs 5 crore.

Within four years, the Gopichand Academy had become operational. By this time all the top players had shifted to this academy. Gopi also faced stiff resistance from senior players like Jwala Gutta and Chetan Anand, who questioned his experience and credentials.

In 2009, the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government threatened to take over a part of the five-acre land. Gopi was forced to go to court and an amicable settlement took quite a while.

Then came the Prajakta Sawant controversy, with the doubles player accusing Gopi of spoiling her career. Queried if he wanted to quit coaching then, Gopichand had said these controversies made him even tougher.

As Gopichand once said, "I believe Indians are good athletes. The only problem is we don't have facilities and a system in place. We have created a system and facilities here and that's why we are getting great results."

With everything - infrastructure, coaching, talent and financial support - in place, there is no reason why Hyderabad cannot keep producing more Sainas, Sindhus, and Gopis.

Top singles players from Gopi's stable

Saina Nehwal: Olympic bronze medalist, has won about 20 international titles; best world ranking: 2.

PV Sindhu: Bronze at World Championships and Malaysian GP Gold title; best world ranking 11.

Parupalli Kashyap: First Indian to make it to men's singles Olympics quarters; Indian Grand Prix Gold title; best world ranking 6.

Kidambi Srikanth: First Indian to win Grand Prix title outside India; best world ranking 38.

Sai Praneeth: Shocked several top players like Taufik Hidayat; consistently reaching semifinals and finals of international events; best world ranking 37.

RMV Gurusaidutt: Won Tata Open and is ranked 20 in the world now.

HS Prannoy: reached finals of Bahrain Challenge; ranked 46 in the world now.

Arundhati Pantwane: won Bahrain Challenge; best world ranking 49.

Other talented shuttlers: Sikki Reddy, Aparna Balan, Arun Vishnu, Tarun Kona, Pranaav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar have all qualified for World Championships in doubles.

SOURCE:
TOI