Adventure & Wildlife Magazine - Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 | 页面 104

ADVENTURE & WILDLIFE
Product: MirrorMumbaiTB
PubDate: 26-07-2015
THE SUNDAY READ
Zone: Mumbai
Edition: 1
Page: MMIRVIE3
www.mumbaimirror.com/others/sunday-read
User: mirror1
Time: 07-25-2015
21:03
Color: C
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SundayMumbaiMirror | SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015
12
PICS: NILESH WAIRKAR
RECIPE FOR A
PERFECT PICKLE
Since 2007, the number of Mumbaikars playing pickleball has grown fivefold. A rising
tally of medals only helps prove that the odd American sport isn’t so obscure anymore
Bhavya Dore [e-mail]
TWEETS@_MumbaiMirror
I
n a one-room tenement in an Andheri
chawl, there is very little room to live, let
alone nurture aspirations for sports. But
the country’s doubles silver medallist in
the little-known but growing sport of pickle-
ball, is hardly going to let that shackle her
ambitions. Ankita Balekar, 19, doesn’t have a
computer at home, or a phone smart enough
to stream YouTube to watch videos of inter-
national matches of this obscure American
game, but that hardly comes in the way of
her love for the game.
Balekar, a student of Nanavati College in
Vile Parle plays the game — a sort of tennis-
badminton-table tennis amalgam — twice a
week at the Andheri Sports Complex. One
evening she was energetically pummelling
shots during a casual doubles game with
other college students. “There is a special
thrill to pounding a backhand across the
court,” she said, in between games.
It earned her a silver medal in the doubles
category for the Mumbai team at the three-
day national championship in Panipat in
June. It was one among several medals
earned by the Mumbai team, placing the city
second in the overall championship which
saw participation from 10 states. The team
104
placed first was Maharashtra, drawing on
players from other districts, but Mumbai was
carved out as a special team because there
are just so many players from here, the
authorities feared they would grab all the
spots in the state team.
Pickleball first formally arrived in India in
2008, when the All India Pickleball
Association (AIPA) was officially formed. The
game was ‘invented’ in 1965 in the US, and
has grown rapidly in that country, where it is
especially popular in the older demographic.
Mumbai now has about 150 active
players — men and women —
drawn from all age-groups and
social classes, up from the 30-odd
in 2007. So how did the city get to
be so good at this obscure American
game?
“It’s my life’s mission to spread
this game,” said Sunil Valavalkar, 51,
who first played it while visiting the
US in 1999 and later became
the founder of AIPA. “This
is the game of tomorrow.”
He could barely contain
his excitement as he
mimicked elaborate
swings. “It is something
out of the world,” he
said. “It’s like tennis but
with less space, less cost
and less energy.”
Valavalkar’s own enormous reserves of
energy have been spent in promoting the
game through the city and the state. The
first state-level tournament was held in 2012
in Kalyan with around 50 participants, rising
to about 135 at this year’s fourth such tour-
nament held in Jalgaon.
Aside from Andheri, Khar Gymkhana and
Dombivli Gymakhana also have facilities to
play, even as the game is silently proliferat-
ing through housing colonies in the suburbs.
Manish Rao, who first started playing last
year, has become something of an
evangelist for the game, undertaking
demos through housing societies in
Goregaon, and regularly playing with
a group of 12 at his own society
where they have demarcated a spe-
cial court. “It’s easy to pick up this
game,” said Rao, 45, who runs his
own security automation
business. “There is no
advantage for those
with greater height or
stamina.”
Like tennis, it
involves winning the
best of three sets,
with each set com-
Sunil Valavalkar
prising 11 points. The court is 44 feet by 20
feet, the same as a badminton court, but
with a low-hung net as in tennis. It can be
played indoors or outdoors, singles or
doubles. Equipment is hard to come by in
India, but AIPA has been manufacturing the
wooden bats and plastic fibre balls locally, or
ordering these online. Locally these cost Rs
500, and when imported at the higher end,
they could cost up to Rs 7,000.
On a Thursday evening, several college
students were involved in a brisk doubles
games, stroking the ball with ease and
confidence. Some were from ML Dahanukar
College in Vile Parle, which now has a
pickleball tournament in its annual college
festival. Others were from neighbouring
institutions. “A few years ago, I got addicted
to it,” said Krishna Gupta, 22, a Mumbai
University diploma student. “I played a little
and thought, there is