Interview with Pullela Gopichand: "There were people who said that I couldn't be a coach since I had my own fair share of issues."

Gopichand with CBI Director Ranjit Sinha during an international conference

The academy has of course come a long way since its inception and over the last few years, we have seen it consistently churn out some top players. But before that phase, a lot of badminton enthusiasts, some of my friends too, used to refer to the academy as a good facility, but nothing more. Could you talk us through those formative years?

I would get up in the morning and come to the academy. We initially started off at 8 am with the first session, and then it moved ahead. We started calling players at 7 am, then 6 am, then 5, then 4; we kept pushing. I honestly don’t know why we did it! What I felt when I started coaching was that I had rushed into it a little too early. In 2004, I had started off even before I had a sponsor and before the building was ready. But perhaps what pushed me into starting coaching was the talent within the players that I had – I mean, I would probably get talented players three years down the line too, but this group of kids would be gone. So why not just do it now?

Saina, Sindhu, Kashyap, Gurusai, Sumeet – all of them were from the first batch in 2004 April. And when we started off, I told them if we start later, we’ll miss this group. We’ll have another group, but this one would be lost.

I had actually started coaching these kids in 2003 at a 45-day long summer camp. When I was injured I used to take them through the basics. So I started liking these kids and we jumped into it.

At that time there was a lady called Sunita Dhanraj, who gave us a 10 lakh cheque from the government and the Gachibowli stadium, and told us to start off. We started to get shuttles, and then we had one foreign coach, a couple of other assistant coaches. But the 10 lakh got over in about 6 months’ time and we didn’t have any sponsor.

Still, I kept pushing; I didn’t stop, and said to myself that it really doesn’t matter. We had support from some of my friends – Yonex kept providing shuttles, some people donated money, but 6 months down the line, the foreign coach was gone and I had to spend more time there.

And the academy was still being built. So I would go in the morning, coach between 6 and 10, then come back home, then go to visit potential sponsors, then go in the evening again for coaching, and then all of us would go back. That’s how things were.

For almost 3-4 years it kept going that way. We would have challenges and would manage for the day; the next day was another day. We didn’t get any more funding after that from the government. The initial funding helped me start, but then we had issues with the stadium and the funding, the coaches. Luckily, we kept pushing, and someone or the other was always there at the last moment to help out.

In June 2008 we moved here, after which lot of things got stabilized. There was a long court case though since the government wanted the land back, but we kept fighting. Saina has been a big motivation; she’s been producing results which are very important. It also kept me motivated, kept my stature my reputation up, and gave me a little more time to work on the others – Kashyap, Sindhu, Gurusai and the others.

Tell us a little bit about (your wife) Lakshmi. Obviously when the two of you got together, you had not signed up for this. How did you maintain the balance, and has she ever complained?

She does, but she’s been very supportive. Luckily for me my kids also started playing and so I got to see them on a regular basis. Lakshmi understands everything well, and she is also almost resigned to the fact that badminton is my first love. And apart from this, if I’m spending my time here, and with her, she never complains. If I do this and something else, then she complains about whatever else I’m doing. But I’ve never had any complaints from her for spending more time here.

She sometimes gets a little upset with things and she often says, “that’s enough, let’s wind up” and stuff like that, but of course, not very seriously. It is something that she’s emotional about, that we’re all emotional about. That’s what makes us work well together.

Does she see a bigger role for herself on the courts?

One of the good things is that, all these years, I’ve still worked for Indian Oil – that’s where I get my pay from; Lakshmi works with Bharat Petroleum, my dad works at Hero Motors, my mom works here. So when I look at the success of the academy, I realize it is also due to the fact that we did not have to worry about our pay check.

And I can’t pay Lakshmi enough if she were to join! But hopefully, if things go well, she might have a role on the courts in the future. In any case, because of the above mentioned scenario, the pressure on me is reduced, and we have been able to manage.

And now about the problem of plenty. Earlier, you had Saina and Kashyap. But now we have a host of players coming into the top 20, top 30. Badminton being an individual sport, I’m sure you need to give them your personal attention to hone their game. In the future, as we have more players at the top level, and possibly competing against each other, how would you as a coach divide your attention?

If they face each other, it is actually easy for me, because I’m sitting outside and saying it doesn’t really matter. From a strategic standpoint, the amount of time I spent with Saina in her formative years and the amount of time I have been able to spend with the next group has been different. So it is definitely a challenge. I guess when the time comes, we will figure out a way to do it. I can probably give you a better answer to this question two years down the line. Many of them are dependent on me and we will just have to find people to take over the mantle based on who they might be comfortable with.

It is also tough because it is an individual sport; managing a hockey team or cricket team or football team would probably be a little easier. Here they’re competing against each other; not just competing as a team, but also competing within the team.

Still, it has its positives, because now I don’t have to do much – I can sit back as I know that the work is of good quality and nobody wants to lose.

Managing the stakeholders like the parents, media, and other people outside of badminton, who make casual remarks, is also a big challenge. In the future we may have sponsors too coming in; they may place some very big demands, so we will have to counter that as well.