PICKLEBALL IN INDIA

Megha Kapoor and Niraj Sharma

Pickleball was originated by a group of bored fathers in Saint Baring ton, near Seattle, Washington in the year 1965. The game is brought in India by Sunil Valavalkar, a lawn tennis enthusiast and a true sport lover in 2007. It was started with few enthusiasts in Mumbai but now it's played in over 20 states. He played this game very first time in Canada. He is the director at GTL Ltd., India’s largest network service provider and he is also the founder of AIPA (The All India Pickleball Association). He told in an interview that,” My reason for living is Pickleball “. He has endless passion for the game which is enough to inspire many people within the world. When he brought Pickleball in India, he faced many problems and struggles to get recognition for this game. But his willpower and determination succeeded in placing the Pickle Ball in India and it is the result that the popularity and craziness of this game is going higher and higher these days. He started sending free gears with balls to interested parties in many places of India. 

As pickle ball is spreading in many states of India like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madya Pradesh and many more. But among all these Jaipur in Rajasthan is making headlines.

 
A Jaipurite named Megha Kapoor is being noticed again and again in Pickleball. She has played many tournaments since 2016. She has bagged bronze medal in mixed double with Niraj Sharma in 4th Senior National Pickle Ball Tournament 2016. She has won silver medal in mixed double category with Niraj Sharma in Bangkok Open Pickle Ball Tournament 2017. She has won Gold Medal in women’s double category with Madhulika in Federation Cup 2017. She has bagged bronze medal in mixed double with Niraj Sharma in 5th Senior National Pickle Ball Tournament 2018. Recently she has bagged Gold Medal in 3.5 category women’s double with Olga Marco and Bronze medal in 4.5 category mixed double with Niraj Sharma in Spanish Open Pickleball Tournament 2018. Just after that in 2019, she won the triple crown as she won 3 gold medals in singles, doubles and mix doubles. This achievement made her India 1st Ranking Women Player In 2019. 

 

This girl enthusiast is professionally a programmer. She told that it was by chance when she goes for workout at Vidyadhar Nagar Stadium and there she looked up Pickleball game. After that she got an idea about this game and started playing this game on a regular basis. She thought about pursuing this game seriously.

 

Having a busy schedule, she however managed to practice this game daily. She is playing this game since 2016. When asked about her next move in this sport, she said that her next priority is to highlight and make it reach to a wider range of audiences and players.

 
This is being through with support of structured organization AIPA (All India Pickle Ball Association) and Megha and her team is functioning towards it and searching forward to varied global merchandise companies like Selkirk, Prolite and Pickleball central readily sponsors promising players along side the national and international tournaments.
 
Supporters of Pickle Ball Game in India:
 
The Pickle Ball game was introduced by Sunil Valavalkar in India. He is a 1st player from India as well as General Secretary of All India Pickle Ball Association (AIPA). He played Pickleball very first time in Canada. He has reported that this year he saw largest participation from many states of India. The growth of Pickleball indicates that this superb sport is greatly received by the society and loved by the players. He said that he begins to play this game by giving training to his daughter and niece. Then he started giving demonstration at many places like schools, clubs, campuses, building societies and many more. He then approached his family and friends to form an organization for the game.
 
Some centres for playing Pickle Ball in India:
 

Delhi
Mumbai in Maharashtra
Jalgaon in Maharashtra
Jaipur in Rajasthan
Panipat in Haryana
Pondicherry in South India
Indore in Madhya Pradesh
Patna in Bihar
Ranchi in Jharkhand
Vadodara in Gujarat
Ahmadabad in Gujarat

Dehradun in Uttarakhand 

Manish Rao the true sport lover

There are many people in India who are enjoying the sport and playing Pickleball. There are around 60,000 or more Indians who knows Pickleball and are active participants. Many people would love to play this game if given them opportunity but still it needs to reach higher players and audience and making reality to those people who wants to play this game. It is still waiting for some governmental recognition so that it can be available to people who are living in rural and grassroot places. Some active Pickleball players feels that this sport has all the potentials to be a Global Sport. The more it is played all across the world the more are chances to get included in Global games. It is possible for Pickleball to conquer the World. 

The sport who can easily wins the guts of individuals that sport has every right to become people’s game. Well, this game has no barriers of age, gender and strata. This game can bring people on equal level where they will play this game happily and peacefully. So, this sport gives enormously great results to our health and give health insurance to any age of living.