For Gopichand now to stand up for mediocrity and a monthly salary that the middle class craves, is shocking and should be dismissed as a weak moment statement
There are a few Indians who have devoted their life to creating value and champions in sport and succeeded in it, like badminton icon Pullela Gopichand.
In more than two decades since he won the All England, badminton’s big slam, Gopichand has successfully groomed top-notch badminton stars. India also won the Thomas Cup and the World Cup of badminton. His badminton academy in Hyderabad has seen more perseverance and ambition than any square yard in India. So when he suddenly pops up and warns about the dangers of trying to make it big in sport, it sounds like the Bishop warning against spending too much in church praying, because there is no guarantee of everybody making it to heaven. His statement in an interview to a national publication has undoubtedly rattled the sports fans and the establishment alike.
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Hidden irony
“All I’m saying is, don’t go all in, hoping they will be the next Sachin and earn Rs 200 crore. It won’t happen 99 per cent of the time,” he said. He also pointed out that many of the stars he groomed had no job and hence no financial security despite all the effort put in.
Gopichand, though single-minded in his pursuit of making India a badminton power, has always been a purist and conservative, abiding by certain old-world values, even though he lived in the other corner, showing the way to break moulds and glass ceilings. Early on in his playing days, when he was offered an advertising contract for a soft drink brand that would have got him big money, he refused, saying he did not want to endorse carbonated drinks. Here he stood for values ingrained in him, rather than take the money. There is something admirable in what he did, something similar to Muslim sportsmen refusing to endorse alcoholic drinks in their jerseys. But there is hidden irony here also. At that time, Gopichand scorned big money, and now, many years later, he says there is no money or job in big sport. That is a significant change.
Gopichand also reflected on the Indian middle class nightmare: Of children not getting jobs if they spent time playing. The immediate reason also could be that his daughter Gayatri, who is now in a formidable doubles partnership with Treesa Jolly (world ranking of 10 now), has neither been able to make it big in singles nor in the career earnings which now stand at about $87,000 (Rs 75 lakh approx.).
Playing for country
In the professional circuit in most games, especially tennis and badminton, most of the money has to be spent in travelling around the world tirelessly looking for that elusive career title. But there is money to be won in every round. Even a first-round defeat in a Grand Slam tennis event fetches India’s Sumit Nagal close to Rs 75 lakh. Badminton is a poor cousin, with the high-ranking Indian Open, part of the circuit held last month in Delhi, fetching a singles prize money of $66,500.
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But the point is there is money and glory in badminton, and what better feeling than to play for your country and see the national flag go up the pole and then you think all that sweat was worth it? Working in a PSU, with only boredom, hopelessness and mediocrity to keep you company is what Gopichand is now sadly rooting for. This was not expected of him, whose life showed us the way to excellence and glory.
Where Gopichand has gone wrong is in downscaling the value of being a professional in sport (as different from an amateur who works in a PSU and plays during weekends and in the Nationals PSU championships). It is shocking that he did not point out to his ward PV Sindhu and tell the story of her achievement and ask others to follow her path.
Success stories
Sindhu, who is a double Olympic medalist incidentally, is now valued at close to Rs 75 crore (Rs 60 crore in 2023) by endorsing a slew of products. Look at the number of cricketers in India even those who haven’t played for the country but have career earnings of close to Rs 20 crore by the time they are 30. In which job in India can you make that sort of money? Now that all sport has been professionalised in India, even footballers mostly from underclass families who went for broke earn close to Rs 1 crore annually. In life you have to go for broke. Or end up unsung and unfollowed.
The issue then is what they do after they retire. Here too there is a world of possibilities, including sports management, coaching (like Gopi himself did), teaching in schools, running academies and the like. In professional sport, no one looks for a job. You are the job. You are the star. You are the brand.
It is true that only a few make it to the top in any sport. But that is the case in all fields of activity. How many engineers from prestigious universities in India make it to the top in say Infosys or TCS? Very few. Is that any reason to dissuade youngsters from studying engineering? The starting salary for many engineering graduates in most IT companies is a pathetic Rs 25,000, when the CEO’s earn close to Rs 1 crore a month. It is the same in all fields of human activity.
Larger truth
There is a larger truth that Gopichand has forgotten. Human life and its progress and pushing the borders of modernity is in the hands of a few people around the world. These few people have changed our lives. Human life as a whole is largely mediocre. But the search for excellence and to be at the top has to continue in all fields. Government and private initiatives to help sportsmen have gone up considerably.
The world of sports and science is changed by those people who believe in themselves. Nothing can stop them in their quest to be at the top. Such yearning you can see in all who win gold medals. One such man who changed the world we live in is Bill Gates, who, in his just released autobiography Source Code, numbingly narrates the story of his childhood and the tensions with his middle-class professional parents who, like everyone else and Gopichand, also wanted their "difficult son" to toe the line. His mother worked relentlessly to make her son like a regular kid but Bill Gates was different. His mind was somewhere else. “The truth was, I felt most at home in my own head.” Gates changed the world.
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For Gopichand now to stand up for mediocrity and a monthly salary that the middle class craves is shocking and should be dismissed as a weak moment statement. In India we need heroes like our cricketers or Sindhu or Lakshya Sen. We don’t need clerks which our educations system spews out. Clerks devoid of direction and ambition and looking out of the window of a government office all their lives. When Lakshya Sen practises late into the night, with a burning ambition, we should see hope and a bright light and the colour of gold medals dangling on the chest. Only then can a nation move up.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)
