Pullela Gopichand wants a law to free sports from politicians, bureaucrats

“From policymakers, there are two important things. For performance, there are too many people involved, there are the (sports) associations, government, private parties, and managers; there’s a whole ecosystem,” he said.

“It needs a set of people who are committed, whether it’s players, coaches, and support staff, and an ecosystem which builds performance. We need to keep that isolated from the rest of it. So, I would say ‘boss get this done for us (athletes)’,” he added.

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Education just as important

While Gopichand was happy with the phenomenal success and growth of sports in the country, he also pointed out the flip side of it, saying that kids could be leaving education for better prospects in sports.

“We have grown too fast as a country in sport, we are still pushing forward in big force and that is amazing. But, I think, we need to look at the entire ecosystem because all it takes is one generation of failed sportspersons to show to society, or society will see it and say, ‘there is no use playing sports’. I don’t want that to happen,” he said.

“What is also happening is that kids, players are taking up sport (and) leaving education. For some, it’s happening at nine (years of age) and that is a big case of concern. Because, at the end of the day, sport has a very thin margin of people. We have people speaking about how there are 6,000 kids across various sports who are given ₹6 lakh or ₹3 lakh a month (year from the government),” he added.

He wondered what will happen to the “5,600 people who don’t make it (to the top)”. “Where are they going for their jobs? Are they skilled enough for their next journey?” he asked.

“Thousands of people take up sport and a very small percentage is successful. What happens to the huge number who don’t make it? How are we going to ensure their lives are secure?”