'I failed IIT,' says Indian badminton coach Pullela Gopichand

Former India badminton player turned coach Gopichand stressed the importance of having a good quality education and a safety net for athletes in the country on Sunday.

Gopichand, 51, was speaking in The Playmakers, a live panel discussion hosted by The Bridge.

The Dronacharya awardee recalled his own tryst with academics in the conversation.

"My brother went to IIT, so the standards at home were very different," recalled Gopichand. "I wrote the IIT exam and I failed.

"I wasn't that good at junior level [in badminton], so my parents said you better play well," he added with a laugh.

He asserted that a corporate job which he landed when he just turned 18 was what kept him going in the sport. Else he would have given up his badminton ambitions.

"What made me continue playing the sport was my job in Tata Steel, that was very important," he said.

"If in 1991 when I turned 18, I did not get a job in Tata Steel, I would have written the engineering exam and become an engineer somehow or the other. But since I got the job, my parents were like 'Now there is a safety net, you can play,'" he added.

Gopichand stressed the fact that in the modern world having just a job to support an athlete might not be enough. Besides, not all the top athletes land government jobs. Even those who are lucky enough to get one through their sporting exploits, often end up in junior clerical roles for years.

"We have national champions, who work as peons," explained Gopichand. "We have National Games champions without jobs, we have Asian Games silver medallist national record holder working as a junior clerk.

"These are not great jobs. We want better jobs is what I am talking about," he added.

The coach opined that it is mandatory that India, as a nation, start thinking of an "exit plan" for athletes, who retire or fail to make it big after dedicating years of their lives to sport.

"Back in the day [when he was playing], we had three badminton courts in Hyderabad. We were, say 20 people playing there. Ten of us got jobs, and ten of us did not get jobs. It did not matter also because the whole population was 20," stated Gopichand.

"Today with the support of government, NGOs, people have built hundreds of academies in Hyderabad itself. So, basically you are looking at the number of people taking up the sport, which is very good. The support for them has also increased drastically.

"The entry [into sports] is superb. All I am saying is, sort out the exit program. We do not have an exit program.

"When I used to play there were about 100 players playing, now around 10,000 play. When we delay it [the exit program], we are actually spoiling the lives of so many people and I see it day in and day out," he added.