Surprised with Kohli’s gesture: Pullela Gopichand

Indian skipper Virat Kohli joined hands with businessman Sanjeev Goenka to launch Indian Sports Awards in Delhi in September.

Kohli came as the prominence at the launch event which implies to honor sportspersons of the country for their magnificent achievements, where, the stage was shared by Dronacharya Awardee Pullela Gopichand and Dipa Malik, the Rio Paralympic silver medalist in shot-put.

Virat Kohli acknowledged Pullela Gopichand for his contribution towards badminton. He said, “If you see, many athletes from different sports have done well. I remember as a kid, we watched Gopichand’s All England on Doordarshan. And after that, we have seen so much improvement in badminton circuit. In last 4-5 years, shuttlers have brought so many medals and it feels good watching them play.” He added saying that it is an honor to launch something in association with Mr. Sanjiv Goenka.

He tweeted,

So proud to announce the Indian Sports Honours with these two gentlemen,Thank you Mr Sanjiv Goenka & Pullela Gopichand Sir. #BLUERISING #ISH pic.twitter.com/NKXGUtroGe

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) September 9, 2017

National Chief Coach, Gopichand, didn’t expect the outset of praises in scads from the Indian Cricket Team Captain about him and prodigious wonders from his students like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth, besides his contribution to the Indian badminton.

Addressing to the media, Kohli said that he has always believed in promoting sports in the country, but, it will happen only with the proper facilities. He added saying that having confidence on the players is the must. This is the reason why they have decided to come up with a platform where they will identify one sportsperson from each sport and will look after them, nurture them and track their growth.

The 28-year old said that more cricketers should come up and help India achieve the tag of a ‘sporting nation’.

He further said, “As far as Virat Kohli Foundation goes, we’ll be providing support of Rs 2 crore for these sportspersons every year and this amount might even go up.”

“With another 8-10 years of cricket more left in me, I want to keep my game at the peak. We limit ourselves even before we try. Most of the people stopped at 70 per cent, so we need to push until it’s done. Thus, I want to contribute to the betterment of the sports until I am connected to the same.”

“So, I really train hard in my cricket life because rest of the life I won’t be playing sports. So, we need to make the most of the day. Small things matter to me. What I eat, how I train etc.” he added.

“I am also honored to be with Gopichand sir. It’s commendable what he is doing.” Talking about the poor condition of other sports in India, Kohli said, “when you go to other countries, they have a similar mindset about all the sports, but growing up in India, I can accept that I didn’t even know the rules of other sports.”

With Pullela Gopichand heading the jury, the Indian skipper admired the national badminton coach for helping Indian shuttlers escalating heights.

Later, swamped by Virat’s warm gestures, Gopichand said, “I simply could not believe that Virat Kohli would start his lecture with an appreciation for me. Most interestingly, I got a little nostalgic when Kohli mentioned that he had watched my All England championship final on the television along with friends. He can be an example to country’s any sportspersons.”

Gopi, after returning to the city with recording of Kohli’s speech, said, “I will ask each and every student in my academy to listen to Kohli’s speech, delivered in the function. It is brief but it will be very inspiring for the students.” He said that the message behind Kohli’s speech is what every sports-person needs for achieving success. In whatever condition he or she is in, no athlete should choose to quit and the sporting spirit will eventually drive an athlete towards success.

Gopichand is impressed with the sports journalists for being the part of the journey in tracking the players throughout the year and making sure that no one is missed.