Game of fortunes: Chasing sporting glory

Breaking the bank to break records is the harsh reality for Indian athletes and their families to fund a professional sports career with little state support

- Shipra Singh

Former Olympian and Indian badminton national coach Pullela Gopichand has stirred up a hornet's nest by advising people against putting their children up to a career in sports unless they are rich. Gopichand rued the lack of long-term work opportunities for players who do not make it to the elite club, making it difficult to earn a livelihood after retiring.

Coaches for other professional sports share Gopichand's concerns. Dronacharya awardee Sandeep Gupta, the head coach at Stag Table Tennis Academy, said training itself is expensive—one table tennis bat rubber costs ₹15,000 and needs to be replaced every month, alongside coaching and travel costs. Gupta has trained Olympians like Manika Batra and Neha Aggarwal.

Hyderabad's Meera Khandelwal, training her daughter Tishya for a pro tennis career knows it too well. She expects her annual spend to be ₹45 lakh on training from next year in Australia. Tishya, a BITS Pilani student, joined professional training at 10 and won many junior-level national and international titles. In 2019, Meera spent about €6,900 (₹6.51 lakh today) for two months at Justine Henin Academy. In 7 years, she spent around ₹20 lakh annually on training, travel, equipment and physiotherapy. Here, Mint explores the cost of training champions and how rewarding a sports career is.

The cost For most sports, costs rise at 12-13 when pro training begins. In Noida, Arpit Jain spends ₹10,000 per quarter on academy fees and ₹6,000 monthly on a coach for his 11-year-old son Nakul. He expects costs to hit ₹1 lakh per month with advanced training.

"I will send him to Irfan Pathan's academy or train him under a coach with international exposure. It will cost much more, but it's important for Nakul to improve his game."