“I hope to play till I’m 33 at least”

As competitive sports go, this is as close as it gets. On August 1, at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, the last match of the Commonwealth Games badminton semi-finals is poised 20-15 in favour of Hyderabad boy Parupalli Kashyap. Rajiv Ouseph, England’s only remaining medal hopeful, misses the bird in the first match point. Just as Kashyap, the 2010 bronze medallist, begins to exult he realises abruptly that the point has gone in favour of Ouseph. The game continues, lasting all of 83 minutes and involving the longest rally running into 72 seconds and 71 strokes, until Kashyap finally triumphs 18-21, 21-17, 21-18.

“It was surely one of the toughest matches I have ever played,” recalls the 28-year-old Kashyap. “The pressure was outstanding, but unlike earlier matches where I’ve lost by slight margins, this time I focused and made sure I got the result.” He went on to beat Singapore’s Derek Wong 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 in the finals, bringing the CWG gold to India after 32 long years. That puts him in the league of greats such as Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi.

A conscious choice

“When he’s playing, I flip the channels and pause just long enough to check the score. I get too tense otherwise,” says his mother, P Subadhra, speaking from Hyderabad.

Thanks to his father Uday Shankar’s pharma job, Kashyap spent his childhood in three different cities. “From Hyderabad we shifted to Lagos in Nigeria for a few years, then Bangalore and finally came back home.” Playing badminton from an early age, Kashyap received constant support from his mother, who accompanied him to tournament venues. “Till I made my mark at the national level it was quite tough to keep at it. Equipment was expensive and I needed to travel a lot, participate in as many tournaments as possible. My parents were really supportive all through,” he says.

It was just after his schooling, aged 17, that he had to make one of the biggest decisions of his life: choose to stay with the game or embark on an engineering course. “It was quite dramatic actually. We were at the counselling centre to choose my stream and college. I realised I just can’t do both, badminton and engineering. So I told my parents, and when they saw I was really sure about what I wanted they let me go ahead,” he says.

It proved a good choice as barely two years later, in 2006, he went on to beat established players in the domestic circuit such as Chetan Anand to win the 33rd National Games; the same year he was selected to represent India at the Doha Asian Games. A string of achievements followed, including a three-year contract with Indian Oil Corporation. The past eight years of his playing career have witnessed highs during 2009, 2010 (CWG bronze) and 2012, when he reached the Olympics quarter finals, and a few low points too, but he has retained a higher ranking throughout.

“More than winning one or two tournaments, in badminton it’s also about consistency. A player like me who is in the 20s in the world rankings needs to play at least 18-20 tournaments in a year to push up or even maintain my position. Maybe later, once I break in and remain in the top 10, I can afford to play 11-12 tournaments in a year.” This year has been among the poorer ones in his career, owing to a shoulder injury at the end of 2013. Of the 10 tournaments he played before the CWG, four saw him stumble in the first round and there were three second-round exits. But he laid to rest these ghosts by snatching the CWG gold.

The constant trainer

Kashyap’s successes are all the more extraordinary for someone who was diagnosed with asthma in Class X. “We were in Bangalore. I’d had a lot of breathing problems,” says Kashyap. However, instead of allowing his ailment to defeat his dreams, he pushed harder and derived inspiration from sportspeople like British marathoner Paula Radcliffe and Olympic triple gold medallist Jackie Joyner Kersee, who overcame asthma to succeed at the highest international levels.

Among the oldest students at badminton ace Pullela Gopichand’s academy in Hyderabad, he trains not less than six to eight hours a day, six days a week. He is among the ‘golden generation’ of winners emerging from the academy, which includes players like PV Sindhu, K Srikanth, Saina Nehwal and RMV Gurusaidutt.

“He’s a player who really pushes himself. While he’s had a mixed bag of results, he performs in the big stages and that’s what counts,” says Gopichand. “His stroke play is good and he can surpass many with his skill. And while there have been challenges for him off the field as well, when he’s on court, Kashyap’s managed to put things aside and focus on the game.” And that focus is unlikely to waver anytime soon.

“I’m looking to play till I’m 33 at least. Where I want to make my mark next is at the All England Open in March next year,” says Kashyap. “I hope to play my part in promoting the game as well. While it’s more popular now than ever before, it’s still tough for many to break into the game. I want to see a situation where top athletes in any Olympic sport are projected as superstars. That’s the only way more people will be inspired to take up various sports.”

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