Pullela Gopichand – The General, Jawan and Every Rank in Between

“Gopi likens himself to the lead character in the movie Gladiator – when the challenge get tougher, so does he”

I’ve known Chief National Coach for Badminton, PullelaGopichand, for over nine years now – initially through my journalistic interactions when I covered sport for the BBC, and later as Programme Director of GoSports Foundation, a sports Not-for-Profit.

Nine years is a long time and a lot has changed in Badminton over these years – yet, there are three qualities of Gopi that remain pristine. Gopi has the ability to dream a Vision, the knowledge to translate it to Reality, and an egoless willingness to perform even the most Operational tasks to get there. Gopi is a General and a Jawan – and indeed, every rank in between.

When I first interacted him, the Pullela Gopichand Academy was a Vision – the actual building was strictly work-in-progress. There were ongoing legalities that were hampering progress. Even to me, a rank outsider to the academy, it was a tad frustrating that a nation couldn’t support a vision as grand as his. I wondered how much more frustrating it would’ve been for Gopi himself. Yet, he displayed calm, didn’t complain, and only spoke about what could be. The General. Thinking back, perhaps the calm stemmed from the knowledge of what needed to get done. The Brigadier.

Once the academy was setup, Gopi acted as the one-personlayer through which everything was routed – from administrative procedures to sports know-how. Prior to setting up the Academy, Gopi had travelled to the world’s finest badminton centres, and formed in his mind how his Academy would import and customize those thoughts. Consequently, he was especially wary when people, ranging from commercial enterprises to not-for-profits to well-wishers, would recommend the “latest & greatest” international sporting systems for his Academy.

I remember a specific event, when the GoSports Foundation organized a Mental Conditioning workshop for the Academy’s athletes. The idea took some convincing, as it had to fit Gopi’s Vision of what an athlete’s mindset should be; the facilitators were vetted, as they had to be of the right caliber. On the day of the workshop, Gopi was there before anyone else, arranging chairs in the room. The General, the Colonel, the Jawan.

Fast forward to Aug 19, 2016. The nation is basking in theglory of Pusarla Venkata Sindhu winning Silver at the Rio Olympics’ singles badminton event. A long list of first-evers only goes to show how much this medal is actually worth. Pullela Gopichand was of course on the sidelines, a picture of intense focus, his eyes darting, his hands excitedly showing how points should be won, his lips speaking, perhaps chanting, to benefit his protégé’s cause in the matches. The Silver, while being the most tangible element of Indian Badminton’s success, is part of a broader journey for Indian Badminton.

The journey, though, wasn’t easy. Virtually everything that facilitated Indian Badminton’s progress over the last several years has been conceptualized, built and perfected by Gopi. From infrastructure to sparring partners to support staff. He’s of course acutely aware that for sustained success, change needs to be effected at the roots. To enable this, he recently started an initiative called Sports for Life, aimed at making sports a way of life in India. As part of this, he organized a mega event in partnership with the Andhra Pradesh Government, imparting world-class knowledge to Physical Education instructors in the state. Again, the ability to conceptualize and execute a cross-ministry large scale event was phenomenal.

At a very personal level, I used to idolise that othersuperhuman, Sachin Tendulkar. I’d always wondered who I would look up to for inspiration if Tendulkar were to stop playing (yes, I was naïve enough, like most of the nation, to prefix an ‘if’ to the inevitable). As the stars would have it, on the day Tendulkar announced his retirement, I was at the Syed Modi Memorial Badminton tournament, to discuss coaching initiatives with Gopi & the Badminton Association of India. On that very day, I knew I’d found my new hero.

What next for Gopi? I don’t know. He once told me that he likens himself to the lead character in the movie Gladiator – when the challenge get tougher, so does he. And indeed, today, the challenges facing Indian sport are steep. I don’t know what the General has in mind. But I do know one thing – whatever it is, it’s good for India.

(Having covered prestigious sporting events as a journalist with BBC, Saisudha has been working with the GoSports Foundation in the capacity of Programme Director for the last five years. The GoSports Foundation was an early supporter of Kidambi Srikanth, another one of Gopichand’s wards.)

(This story was first published on 20 August 2016 and has been reposted from The Quint’s archives to mark national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand’s 44th birthday.)