7 Indian sportspersons who are repaying their debt to the sport

There is immense sporting talent at the grassroots of a nation like India, and it often goes unnoticed due to several factors, key among them the financial. The next Sania Mirza, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anirban Lahiri or Vijender Singh could be practising the sport in an alley, but with no means to train and hone their skills and no attention to their abilities, their talent lies unnoticed.It is therefore important for those already established within a specific sport to contribute to the growth of talent in the sport. In improving the talent pool for a sport, it is the sport that will eventually benefit.Several countries - Russia prime among them – have programs where established tennis players who have trained under the strong state coaching system and found success donate a portion of their income towards these programmes so the youth who are part of them may benefit, with the cycle continuing.Such programmes, run in India on a large scale, could help the country’s neglected sporting talent come to fruition. In the meanwhile, here are 7 athletes who are contirbuting to theiir own sport even from behind the scenes:

#1 Rahul Dravid

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The Wall is known for being a staunch supporter of young Indian cricketing talent, and has mentored several players on the current team, most notably among them Indian batting star Ajinkya Rahane.

Following an illustrious ODI and test career, the Wall was part of IPL team Rajasthan Royals from 2011 to 2015, and for the first three years batted for the team, following which he coached the side, taking on a role Shane Warne had earlier performed.

He also took on a short stint as the batting consultant for the Indian team in 2014 ahead of the tour of England.

With the team now defunct, Dravid has taken on a much more significant role on the Indian cricketing scene: he currently coaches the India A and under-19 squads simultaneously, and said in an official BCCI interview that it was...” interesting... being a coach you learn about a lot more things than as a player. As a player and as a batsman, your focus is on the batting side of things and you don't pay as much attention to bowling.”

#2 PT Usha

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Known as the Payyoli Express, PT Usha is regarded as one of the greatest athletes in the history of Indian sport. Her list of achievements is extensive, and she set several records over the course of an illustrious athletics career that saw her begin competing in athletics events since the age of 13.

At 16, Usha participated in her first ever Olympic Games in Moscow, and in doing so became the youngest Indian sprinter in the history of the country’s participation in the games.

The Olympian set a series of records in her career, and at the Asian Games in 1986 won a staggering 5 medals – four gold, one silver, which stood for nearly 3 decades as the record for most medals won by an Indian at a single tournament.

Although she has not participated competitively since 1998, Usha decided to be a consistent, strong part of the sport nevertheless.

She set up the U.S.H.A – the Usha School of Athletics in 2002, aiming to explore the untapped athletics potential in Indian youth. In a statement, she echoed a sentiment many of India’s sporting legends and coaches have expressed in the past.

“….(what) we lack in India is not talent, but the basic, modern and scientific facilities. If we train our young Indian sports talents, nothing-not even Olympic medals is unachievable.”

The academy, which to this day is run by the Padma Shri and Arjuna awardee, coaches one of India’s recent Olympic hopefuls Indian track-and-field athlete and national record holder Tintu Lukka, who reached the semi-finals of the Olympic Games in London in 2012.

Lukka has since qualified for next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the country hoping she can bring Olympic athletics glory to the country once again.

#3 Baichung Bhutia

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Bhutia is synonymous with football in India. One of India's best strikers, Bhutia has had success at club football in India and abroad, and made his international football debut at only 19.Over 107 international appearances, Bhutia scored 43 goals, and was instrumental in several of the team's victories over the course of his career. As a 23-year-old, he became the first ever Indian footballer to be signed by a European club when he was picked up by English club Bury in 1999, and only the second in the sport's history in India to play professional club football in Europe.The Arjuna Awardee and Padma Shri played until earlier this year, when he announced he'd be retiring from professional football entirely. Even prior to his retirement, however, he began dabbling in management, joining home club United Sikkim as its manager for a time.Since, the Sikkimese Sniper has set up the Baichung Bhutia Football Schools in the capital with Portuguese football manager Carlos Quieroz. The association, aimed at very young children - from 5 to 15 years old, who have shown proficiency at football are trained. A significant number of these students are from underprivileged sections of society, with the programme aimed at being non-restrictive. Bhutia himself is closely involved.

#4 Prakash Padukone

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All-England Championships winner Prakash Padukone, who was the first ever Indian to win that laurel, has won several titles over the course of his career. The first ever Indian to be ranked No. 1 in the world, Padukone is also heavily involved in many aspects of the game as a non-player, something he has been doing for over two decades since his 1991 retirement.After chairing the Indian Badminton Association for a time, he took on a coaching role for the Indian national team. It's an endeavour Padukone is heavily invested in, and he set up Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation to help athletes with potential develop and hone their skills, with Indian cue sports champion Geet Sethi. Significantly, several of the country's best sportspersons are on its board of directors - among them 17-time Grand Slam winner Leander Paes, India's first Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand, and hockey champion Viren Rasquinha.The foundation has been a significant support for several of India's most significant Olympic hopefuls - Vikas Gowda, Mary Kom, Gagan Narang, ace archer Deepika Kumari and India's best badminton talents - Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap and PV Sindhu among them.But he has always had coaching ambitions. Soon after his retirement, he set up a coaching academy in 1994 to give back to the sport and be able to find and develop talent that can help Indian sport reach the levels he took it to in his heyday.

#5 Pravin Amre

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Amre, who donned Indian blues from 1991 to 1994, has given back immensely to the cricketing community in myriad ways. Amre had a prodigious start to his career, hitting a century on his test debut in South Africa.

Despite his strong performance and the fact that he had an over-40 test average, Amre was unceremoniously dropped for the team, and would never play for India again. He immediately went into coaching, however, taking professional courses in South Africa to hone his skills.

Passionate about his coaching, Amre would go on to coach IPL sides Pune Warriors, Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals, and set up the Cricket India Academy to promote young cricketing talent. He regularly invites eminent cricketers to the academy to speak to his young pupils. Most notably, he invited Sachin Tendulkar, who trained with Amre under now-legendary cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar.

Unlike several other athletes, he has no bitterness about having been dropped from the squad, and has gone on record to say he is happy being involved in the sport and contributing to it.

#6 Mahesh Bhupathi

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The former doubles World No. 1 has 12 Grand Slams to his name across the men’s and mixed doubles, and has let his game speak for him. One of the finest tennis players India has ever produced, Bhupathi has since dropped to 695th in the doubles rankings, and this year has not had much success, crashing out early in every tournament he’s played this year.

Bhupathi’s highest finish this year was at the quarter-finals of the Aircel Chennai Open; he was stopped on course to the semi-finals by his former doubles partner Leander Paes, with whom he has had the biggest successes of his career, including hitting the World No.1 ranking.

The champion, who had long nursed dreams of building a tennis academy, brought those dreams to fruition in 2006 when he opened the Mahesh Bhupathi tennis academy, which focuses not only on imparting technical and professional tennis skills to players, but ensuring the sport is accessible across socio-economic strata.

#7 Pullela Gopichand

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The Indian badminton champion, who won the All-England Open in 2001, is into coaching in a big way. He’s trained some of the country’s biggest athletes individually – among them Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap and PV Sindhu.

Gopichand set up an academy in his own name in his hometown of Hyderabad, and it’s not just a training academy, but an all-inclusive sports facility that can house athletes too.

It wasn’t always easy for the prodigy, who told Sportskeeda earlier this year that he had struggled to fund the facility himself at the time of its inception, having to mortgage his home and plug in his own funds for the project.

He was also unsure if it would come to fruition, but his facility now trains India’s best shuttlers, and despite having retired from active sport, is still able to participate and contribute significantly to the nation's achievements.