Please rally ON the court, not in it

This Monday the honourable High Court of Bombay called Pullela Gopichand running an academy in Hyderabad unethical. In a pronouncement to a petition filed by badminton player Prajakta Sawant, the court said, “Ethically, coach who also heads the selection panel should not run a private academy. He may be a good coach. We are not saying otherwise. But in the interest of justice and fairness, a national coach, also part of the selection panel, should not run a private camp.”

Technically speaking there is a point, and Jwala Gutta, who has taken a sabbatical from badminton and now wants to pursue a career in South cinema, sprang up readily to say there is a‘conflict of interest’. But how much logic do these arguments have? Let’s start from where it all begun.

Sawant, the doubles champion of the 2010 and 2011 national badminton events has alleged that Gopichand is‘mentally harassing’ her and is out to ruin her career because the coach refused to change her doubles partner and also questioned her commitment to the game because she was frequently flying back home to Maharashtra- reasons which in normal terms cannot really be termed ‘mentally harassing’. Yet Sawant found allies in this battle on a different court and not surprisingly Jwala, who has always seen red in the deserved popularity and stardom of Saina Nehwal, has joined the bandwagon.

But the question is not about who says what. Gopi has maintained his silence that he should not have had. As a man he has never been boastful, whether about his success or those of his wards. However, when the court questions the very dignity of a man, who built the academy by mortgaging his own house, it comes as a shock to sports buffs, and as the charge of making money goes, the academy till the 2010 Commonwealth Games was running from pillar to post to find sponsors. Yet for a second let us assume that Gopi is making profit out of Government land, the academy built on a five-acre land at Gachibowli was offered by the Andhra Pradesh Government, that he is biased, partial in his selection and running a ‘one-man show’. But does he dictate rankings and ratings too? Or is it a conveniently manipulated coincidence that players like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, P Kashyap, Ashwini Ponnappa and even Jwala train or trained at his academy? True some started their career elsewhere but they attained international success and popularity under the tutelage of Gopichand. The jury is out to be decided.

Now Sawant has every other choice to practise elsewhere, but her persistence to work under Gopi, even in the guise of a national camp, only reiterates the latter’s worth. Sadly though, she has now become cannon fodder for the ‘anti-lobby’ which till now has done nothing of note for Indian badminton. Websites running ‘comment wars’ too see the interested public questioning Gopi but failing, as usual, to provide any alternative. But this entire row, this washing dirty linen in public, this open rift is going to hurt whatever prospects and popularity badminton in India had built post Gopi’s All England win because badminton is not cricket where controversies, even those involving match fixing, can be shoved away.

Sadly, this Gopichand-Sawant saga once again highlights the immature managerial skills of our sports administrators, under whose ‘supervision’ trivial dissent is allowed to snowball into a war of personal propaganda where every smash hit is caught only in the net. Time we play it fair on the court and not in it.