From taping tennis courts to hosting World Pickleball League: The rise of pickleball in India
From taping tennis courts to hosting World Pickleball League: The rise of pickleball in India
“India ka doosra cricket pickleball ho sakta hai. Jaise cricket ghar ghar mein khelte hain, pickleball bhi ghar ghar mein khel sakte hain” (Pickleball can be India’s next cricket. Just like cricket, pickleball could become a sport played in every household).
Sonu Kumar Vishwakarma, one of India’s budding ‘picklers’, believes the sport and the infrastructure around it is growing exponentially. The young athlete has had an inspiring journey from the lanes of Dhanbad to the CCI Stadium in Mumbai, where he is representing the Chennai Super Champs in the inaugural World Pickleball League (WPBL).
“When I started in 2016-17, there was nothing in pickleball. A few people used to tape tennis courts and play the game. But after COVID-19, people became much more health-conscious, and the sport experienced a huge boom from 2021 onwards. Now, every area, every society has a pickleball court,” he said.
Data from the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA) also attests to the rapid rise of the sport in the country. The number of registered players under the governing body of pickleball in India has increased from around 10,000 in 2021 to approximately 60,000 in 2024.
“There were no fiberglass paddles in 2017. They were quite expensive,” said Mayur Patil, skipper of the Indian team currently representing Mumbai Pickle Power in the league.
“We used to go to the carpenter to make a paddle for us, which was four times heavier than the ones we use now. We used to play with a 20-rupee ‘smiley’ sponge ball because we loved the game,” he added.
Mayur’s first tryst with pickleball came in the small city of Chopda in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, where the current head coach of the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA), Bhupendra Pol, introduced him to the sport.
Along with Mayur, Pol has mentored many young picklers in the city who have gone on to become professionals, including Vrushali Thakare, Tejas, and Kuldip Mahajan.
Pickleball’s acceleration from a leisure activity to a serious professional sport transpired after the COVID-19-induced lockdown. AIPA President Arvind Prabhoo, one of the pioneering promoters of the game in India, successfully brought the Bainbridge Cup – known as the World Cup of Pickleball – to India in 2022.
“After the Bainbridge Cup, we realised that this [pickleball] could grow bigger in the future, and become a career opportunity for us,” said Bengaluru Jawans’ Vrushali, who swapped university cricket and badminton for pickleball.
“My family never supported sports as a career option. I would have been a cricketer otherwise. Their support started quite late. With pickleball, they realised that there are opportunities for earning, and seeing I’m happy, they let me continue pursuing this,” she added.
Vrushali suggests there is some fine-tuning needed for athletes transitioning from other racquet sports to pickleball.
“Badminton has more forward-backwards movement and a lot of wrist movement. Pickleball has sideways movement, and there is no wrist movement at all. The arm movement must come from the shoulder. So, it takes time to adjust,” she explained.
Isha Lakhani, from team Dilli Dillwale and a former national No. 1 in tennis, also found it tricky to adjust to the routines in pickleball despite her tennis background, which helped with improved hand-eye coordination.
“Unlearning tennis and relearning pickleball is, of course, a challenge. Tennis has a lot of diagonal movement,” she said.
“Your body muscles or muscle memory are trained for diagonal movement, and then you have to adjust to going sideways. It requires constant effort,” the 39-year-old added.
Despite suggestions that the sport is fairly easy to master, Kuldip, who represents Hyderabad Superstars, believes pickleball demands a high level of fitness.
“Everyone says the game is easy to play, but when you have to compete and try to master it, you understand what the game truly is. You have to be very fit to handle the lateral movement, or you’ll cramp up quite easily,” he said.
The ongoing WPBL could be yet another significant milestone in the journey of professional pickleball in India. Rubbing shoulders with world-leading players will further help Indian picklers in their quest for international medals.
“I think pickleball is going to experience another boom after the league. It’s being televised everywhere in India and will create a huge buzz around the country,” said Pune United’s Vanshik Kapadia.
“Players from India will get exposure against top American players, as well as those from Australia and Asia. Honestly speaking, the US players are much more experienced than we are. But if we get more experience by playing against them, I think we’ll reach that level soon,” he added.
“For someone like me, coming from a small town and a middle-class family, the WPBL is an opportunity to prove how good I am against international players,” India skipper Mayur said. “I just want to show people that Indians are really good.”
