Busy training young players, Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand are regarded as the architects of India’s badminton revival.

Shivani Naik traces the post-retirement contribution of the country’s two All-England champions

‘It’s about what he really stands for — honesty and leading your life simply and humbly’

Mumbai’s pace and chaos can be unsettling, but Prakash Padukone doesn’t give the impression of being rushed. Even while trainees — senior players who come and shake his hand, rookies who touch his feet, and old-timers such as Aparna Popat who pick up threads of an old conversation seamlessly — huddle around him, and fans adjust their phone cameras as they ask for takes and re-takes.

“I try to accommodate everyone and see things from their perspective,” Padukone says, when he’s done with a throng of fans outside the Cricket Club of India (CCI), where the Tata Open badminton championships started on Friday. “What if I had sought out my idol and he declined me an autograph? God gave me a special talent due to which I could achieve so much in life. But that doesn’t give me the authority to be arrogant.”

Post his All-England title in 1980, Padukone became an Indian shuttle legend who could’ve rested on his laurels, and clapped his acknowledgement of upcoming players from a distance. But he chose the back-room, and sometimes thankless job of organising tournaments and training youngsters at his academy in Bangalore.

“I’ve always been a learner and keen observer, and a little more analytical about what I see. I was fascinated by how the All-England was organised, and I watched keenly how Malaysia and Indonesia conducted events, and then tried to incorporate the best, learning from experience to improve every year,” he says.

... contd.