Pullela Gopichand Says 'Got into Badminton Because I Didn't Get Admission in Cricket'

Badminton legend Pullela Gopichand, who is currently the coach of the Indian national team, revealed what led him to take up the sport at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave 2023 in Bengaluru on Friday.

When asked by an AI anchor (called AI Kaur) about his favourite sport apart from badminton: “Hey Gopi big fan of yours. What’s the one sport you love to play other than badminton?”

Gopichand responded: “Although my knees don’t support it, I would love to play football.”

Gopichand revealed that he used to play cricket whenhe was young, adding that he started to play badmonton after being rejected in cricket.

“Cricket is… I think we all played cricket. I got into badminton because I didn’t get admission in cricket,” the 49-year-old Dronacharya awardee said.

Recounting another incident that led to his becoming a badminton player, Gopichand said he owes his career in the sport to a lucky failure in an engineering exam.

“I wrote an engineering exam where 45 was the pass marks. I was randomly ticking stuff and I got 38,” Gopichand revealed, laughing.

The engineering exam that Pullela Gopichand (luckily) failed: ‘Would have been a disaster’

“If seven of those ticks had been right, I would have got a sports quota and ended up as an engineer, which would have been a disaster for the engineering side,” he said.

Pullela Gopichand also comapred sports and entrepreneurship at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave 2023.

“Sportspersons get into sport with a dream, not everyone believes in it. In some sense, it’s like entrepreneurship. The only thing I had was a dream. The only thing I knew was badminton. The lucky thing was I didn’t have an option. The only option was to succeed,” Gopichand said.