Gopichand Badminton Academy

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Gopichand Badminton Academy is a badminton training facility in Hyderabad, India. Founded by the 2001 All England Open Badminton Champion, Pullela Gopichand, the facility trains several badminton players such as Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap, P. V. Sindhu and Gurusai Datt.^[1]

History

By the time he won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, Pullela Gopichand was already 27 years old and was struggling with a few injuries. With not many playing years left, Gopichand decided to bring a world-class training facility for the next generation. With that intention, Gopichand decided to form a badminton academy. Soon after his well-recognized win in England, the Government of Andhra Pradesh awarded him 5 acres (2.0 ha) of land in 2003.^[2] The land in Hyderabad's Gachibowli area was offered as a lease at a very nominal rate for 45 years.^[3] At the same time, he started talks with Yonex for sponsorship and also wanted to involve a foreign coach.^[4]^[5]

In the following year, Gopichand formulated his plans for the academy and approached Nimmagadda Prasad, a distant relative and a serial entrepreneur, to raise money for this venture. Prasad had recently sold Matrix Laboratories, a manufacturing company, to Mylan Inc.. Since Prasad was convinced about Gopichand's idea, he immediately offered US$500,000 and his assistance in raising an additional amount of US$2 million. With cricket being a more popular sport, Gopichand and Prasad found it hard to raise additional money from other sources. Over time, Prasad increased his contribution to US$1.25 million. Gopichand's wife and former Olympian, P. V. V. Lakshmi, was very supportive of him and even contributed to the effort of securing monetary support.^[6] Despite other donations, Gopichand could only gather US$1.75 million. It was then he decided to mortgage his family home and raise the remaining money for the already delayed project. In 2008, the facility was eventually completed at the cost of US$2.5 million.^[2]

Immediately after the construction, the Government of India sent the Commonwealth Games team to train at this facility. The government increased the daily rate they pay per player to US$20 for this special Games camp. This was a big jump from the US$5 daily fee per player that the government had previously paid for other training camps.^[2]

In 2008, Gopichand appealed to Bollywood, the Hindi cinema industry to become badminton's brand ambassador. He felt that by having a popular cinema icon supporting the sport will help popularize it.^[7]

Despite Saina Nehwal's success in international tournaments, Gopichand found it hard to run the Academy. To run it at an optimal level, it requires US$300,000 a year. As of 2010, he was making do with US$100,000 to pay the training cost for 60 players and was holding off hiring more coaches.^[2]

Facilities

After construction, the US$2.5 million badminton training academy contains eight courts, a swimming pool, weight training room, cafeteria and rooms to sleep.^[2] The construction of this facility was modeled after Bangalore's Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, which is headed by Prakash Padukone. The architectural design was completed by Hyderabad-based Arvee Consultants. The wooden flooring of the courts were made as per international standards.^[6] In addition, physiotherapy, food and diet programs are also available.^[8]

Tournament center

The Academy has also served as a venue for major sporting events. The 2009 Indian Open was held here while the 2009 BWF World Championships used it as a training venue.^[8]^[9]