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This project receives absolutely no financial backing from any State body, including the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), and thrives on the group's support.

VICTORIOUS WAYS: Trainees at the Nandi Pipes Badminton Academy in Nandyal.

During the drought of 2003, S.P.Y. Reddy, Chairman of the Nandi Group of companies, based in Nandyal, Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, averted many famine deaths by combining philanthropy with pragmatism. His trucks carried jowar rotis, costing Re 1 each, well within the reach of the poor, to various corners of the State. Apart from their affordability, thanks to the pulse's innate ability to delay hunger, many lives were saved.

While this attracted nationwide attention, another scheme was launched a year before, that is relatively unknown. When Reddy, now Nandyal's Member of Parliament, was once playing badminton with workers in his industrial estate, the shuttlecock was tossed around by the breeze. A bystander suggested that an indoor facility would enable the game to go on undisturbed. Thus was born the Nandi Pipes Badminton Academy in June 2002. While it wasn't intended to be state of the art, the indoor stadium had certain interesting features. It had four courts that were laid on a wooden flooring. The high ceiling ensured it would be cool, while exhaust-fans close to the roof aided the cooling process with better air circulation. Kattoju Venkateswar Rao (popularly known as Venkat), who had completed a coaching stint in South Africa and was a good friend of former All England champion Pullela Gopichand, was appointed as coach.

Nurturing young talent

A project was launched to spot and nurture talented children in the under-13 and under-10 age groups. There were no takers at first and Venkat had to lure them with promises of sweets, movies and other such incentives.

Slowly children began to trickle in, till it was Venkat's turn to down the shutters. The truants and irregulars were omitted and the beefy coach settled for a group of 30. Nandi Group's Managing Director, S. Sreedhar Reddy, also a badminton buff, wished to take the project further. The players were urged to enter district, State and national-level competitions for greater exposure.

He also organised and hosted national tournaments at the academy. The seriousness in approach to staging such competitions was evident in timely starts, sumptuous food for the children and decent accommodation too. During at least two championships staged there, the town saw an influx of visitors hitherto unseen. The monthly power bill to run the academy alone is about Rs 20,000 and expenditure for the academy's inmates is about Rs 50,000. What's remarkable is that this project receives absolutely no financial backing from any State body, including the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), and thrives on the group's support. The only source of support has been badminton equipment and apparel supplier Ashaway, which has donated kits to the children.

Sreedhar Reddy takes such indifference in his stride and is keen to support the boys till they are 17 or 18. Many have reciprocated his goodwill in the best way they can — by winning accolades on court. One of them, C. Upendra, has won the under-10 singles crown at the SAAP-Yonex tournament in Hyderabad, the Regional Sports Centre event in Kochi and the prestigious Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Championship as well.

Upendra's parents work in the Nandi Pipes canteen. The sprightly fellow began at first by racing against tractors and graduated to testing his legs against faster vehicles. So is A. Naresh's father, an employee with South Central Railway. Naresh clinched the laurels in all the above-mentioned competitions in the under-13 category.

When the team travelled to Kerala, the management sent along two helpers and a sack of the famed Kurnool Sona Masuri rice to substitute the boiled rice available in Kerala. Every morning and evening, Sreedhar Reddy would call up to enquire about the progress of his wards in the day's fixtures. The academy also reaches out to its students by celebrating each student's birthday with a cake.

After the team's triumphant return from Hyderabad, Kochi and Chennai, the boys were sent for a two-day holiday to Hyderabad. Gold chains were presented to the victorious players and a purse to the coach.

The group intends backing two more sports in similar fashion. "One of them will be swimming, for it involves little expenditure for the user," explains Sreedhar Reddy. He mouths no lofty ideals to define the group's generosity or philosophy. Nor does he seek fame for his group. "We are content selling pipes in rural areas, where the farmers need us," he concludes.

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