India’s sparse badminton success in the 1980s was threatening to ring hollow echoes back home, as a junior domestic structure was non-existent. In 1997, Padukone led a rival group against the Badminton Association of India (BAI), and the compromise gave him the post of the body’s executive president. Today, India owes most of its junior-level events to Padukone.

“The toughest part of organising a tournament is coordinating between the various agencies involved — host associations, sponsors, spectators and the press — and before all that, convincing top players to participate. Everyone’s not on the same wavelength and you can’t have your way all the time,” he says.

“As a player, you don’t worry about anything but yourself. Everything’s in your control, and there’s no tension, if there is, I’ve created it myself. As a coach, I’m still dependent on my trainees to perform, so that’s not easy either.” He even jokes that winning the All-England seems easier now.

Padukone’s foray into coaching in 1994 was, what he calls, an emotional investment. “It’s a little disappointing when our players do badly, and when the top ones leave the academy and go. It hurt a lot when it happened the first time. But you learn and understand that whatever you could contribute to their growth, you did. After that it’s their choice. We want them to do well, and we’ve played a part.”

Aparna Popat’s march into the world juniors final just two years after his academy had taken off ranks as a proud moment for Padukone, now 54. “When Gopi came to us, he was not even the national champion, and then to watch him grow was satisfactory. Though he wasn’t with us when he won the All- England, we’d (he includes coaches Vimal Kumar and Vivek Kumar) still played a part. In recent years, Anup Sridhar beat Taufik Hidayat at the world championships.”

... contd.