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Krishna Karthik, a tech product manager in Chennai, was an avid tennis player at school, but chose a stable career over professional tennis when he was 18. Today, at 35, a new sport that uniquely combines tennis, table tennis, and badminton, has presented him with an opportunity to play a sport at the competitive level while balancing a career.
Pickleball, a sport that the likes of Andre Agassi and John McEnroe are promoting globally, is fast becoming a rage in India too. Open social media and you will see posts of people, including celebs, bonding on pickleball courts.
Corporate circuit
Already on its way to replace ‘Golf’ in the American corporate world, pickleball is hitting the company circuit in India too. After all, it is easier to organise fun pickleball matches for employees than mobilise a cricket or football team. And with 40 per cent of pickleball players being women, it is also inclusive.
An Indian pickleball player at international tournaments
Played on a Badminton size court, with the racket or ‘paddle’ slightly larger than that of table-tennis with a perforated plastic ball, Pickleball is easy to learn, and not too taxing on the body, hence age agnostic.
As demand for the sport rises, the All India Pickleball Association is energetically creating more courts and taking the sport to the schools. “Initially, the prize money was not much but recently even in tournaments held in India, prize money is up to $100,000. And in the US large tournaments with prize money upwards of $500,000 are being organised regularly,” Arvind Prabhoo, President of AIPA, said.
AIPA has partnered with digital sports platform KheloMore Sports to promote the sport.
Ujwal Deole, Co-founder and COO, KheloMore, says the plan is to invest around ₹5 crore over a three-year period to construct AIPA-affiliated 100 state-of-the-art pickleball courts. “Pickleball requires less space and investment, and any small spaces can easily be curated into courts. Investor interest is not just in metros but even from places like Surat, Dhanbad and Jhansi,” he adds.
Pickleball court listings on the KheloMore app are up 6x-7x in the last 10 months, and bookings have seen a 2x-3x monthly growth.
IPL equivalent
To top it, Pickleball will soon have its own IPL equivalent- the World Pickleball League (WPBL). Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu is already part of WPBL as the owner of the Chennai franchise as the league eyes an inaugural edition in early 2025. Speaking about the league’s ambitions, former tennis ace Gaurav Natekar and Founder and CEO of WPBL, says they are seeing “tremendous interest” from corporates and others to be franchise owners.
An Indian pickleball player at international tournaments
Is it a bubble waiting to burst? AIPL’s Prabhoo says the sport was invented way back in 1965 and its second coming now proves its sustainability. Others believe Pickleball has the potential to be the next Badminton in India. “It is a matter of time the interest flows down to the school level kids, academies are opened, and when that happens, we may see a transition from tennis / badminton to Pickleball,” says Deole.
