Interview/ Pullela Gopichand, chief national coach, Indian badminton team
PULLELA GOPICHAND, the chief national coach of the Indian badminton team, sparked a debate when he said in a recent interview that only children from rich backgrounds should take up sports. He later clarified that the headline did not capture the nuanced nature of his argument, and that he never meant that those from financially weaker homes should not pursue a sporting career. In an interview with THE WEEK, the former All-England champion spoke at length about the debate, and the need to have a safety net for athletes. Excerpts:
Q/Was there a specific incident that prompted your statement or has it been on your mind for a while?
A/ People who’ve known me would know that this has been always on my mind. I would speak about this at most meetings; the need for kids to play sport and also have exit strategies for those who don’t make it. But the fact is that you want the Olympic cycle to finish, tournaments to finish [before bringing up such a topic]. Sometimes when you speak with somebody for an hour, and they have limited space in the newspaper, then the [catchy] headline actually sparks off a larger debate. So, in hindsight, I’m okay with it because it has at least made me speak up on what I’ve always thought was very, very important.
Q/What has been your takeaway from the reactions to your statement?
A/ People who have read the entire article or followed what I’ve been saying from day one would understand that this is a larger issue, and it’s not about me saying that kids from the middle- or lower-middle class should not take up sports.
Q/As an athlete and a coach, you know chances of success in sports are slim. How do you tell young athletes that they might not make it?
A/ It’s difficult to have this conversation with a young player, because [usually] I’m telling him, ‘You’re going to be the next world champion, and we’re going to work together to do it.’ But we need to understand that they need a reality check at a certain age, say 13 or 14, and it might be different for other sports. It’s much better if you are able to sort this as [part of] a system. It’s an emotional decision between parent and child, student and teacher.
With some of my athletes, some 19-year-olds, I would nudge and say, ‘Boss, let’s see. Let’s be realistic. The results aren’t coming. Why don’t you look at transitioning? You may not be successful in the sport you’re playing, but that is okay.’ The sad reality is that people think that losing is a crime or they’re ashamed of it. The nature of sport is such that you might try your 100 per cent, you might be one of the most hard-working people [and still not make it].
Q/In countries like China or Australia, an athlete’s success is treated as routine, part of the job. But in India, we romanticise the struggles. Does this make players see success as the only available option?
A/ For us, sporting successes have been so few, and the understanding of sport has been so low, that we think everyone who wins is God and everyone who loses is a demon. It’s not necessarily that. The champion is [not necessarily] the one who has worked the hardest of the lot. There are many factors that contribute to the [success]. It’s okay to fail. Just take your learnings from sport, which are huge, to another field and try and be successful there. We need to handhold them so they don’t feel down when they make this decision…. Because today, more than before, to become a sportsperson you have to sacrifice a lot. The best academic years are also your best sporting years. There are only a few slots at the highest [level in sport]. So if you don’t make it, you quickly transition.
Q/So would you suggest all players have some academic backup?
A/ I think it’s important that we look at the entire ecosystem. Some sports will have you play continuously and there might be no motivation for the athlete to study. So sometimes when they leave the sport, [we should] probably handhold them with scholarships and foundation courses to bridge the gap between where they’re supposed to be academically to where they are at the moment…. They have to live another 50, 60 years after they are done playing.
Q/Parupalli Kashyap recently wrote an article supporting your statement, and mentioned athletes are not getting government jobs like they used to. Why is that?
A/ I think there could be various reasons that the government feels that top players don’t need jobs. That they have other revenues, which is also true. Some of the elite athletes have other revenues. But when they start making a name, a job actually gives them safety, which [makes them] happy because then they can play freely. [But] jobs are only one solution. More important are skilling, educating, transitioning and motivating them for a career outside of their sport…. I don’t have all the answers for this problem, but I know this problem is big.
Q/A few days ago, Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced a special capacity building course to help prepare athletes for careers in alternative fields like coaching, refereeing and technical roles. How do you react to that?
A/ I think it’s a fantastic decision. I’ve been in touch with the [sports] secretary. I’ve met Mandaviya sir and I’ll be meeting him next week. They are well-meaning people. It’s just that we need to have a rounded approach to this. We have to accept the fact that for one champion to be made, we probably need 10,000 people to play the sport. We don’t know which of those 10,000 will become a champion, but we know that only one or two will actually make a career out of sport. So where do the rest go? We have not [thought much about it] in the past because probably the numbers were not so high.
I think all of the avenues should come together, whether it’s industry, corporates who are putting a lot of CSR funding into it, the government that is creating schemes or educational institutions [that can help].
Q/Do you think the change will have to start from the parents or will it have to be a wider, system-related change?
A/ Changes happen because society puts pressure on people to think…. The kid will have to believe that he will be the next big thing [because] that’s the way sport works. He cannot have a plan B. It’s for society to provide him with the safety net, whether it’s the parents or institutions. We need to drill this into a system. It cannot just be an emotional issue.
