Four dentists, a couple of journalists, an architect and a few product managers are all part of a WhatsApp group. Every Monday and Thursday, one person in the group runs a poll. It's to ask the others whether they are up for playing pickleball later that week. As long as the 'ayes' have a quorum of five — spoiler alert: the polls almost always have a quorum — they book a pickleball court at Ice Water Arena in Express Avenue (or in some other facility) in Chennai.
A few weeks ago, most of the 21-strong group voted in favour of a two-hour session from 10 PM. So they ended up booking all three of the courts at EA.
Welcome to a sport usually described as 'one part table tennis, one part tennis and many parts of fun'. It's that last part -- fun -- which has made them keep coming back to the sport ever since all of them hit a wiffle ball in anger three-four months ago.
There is nothing sui generis about playing this particular sport. In fact, if anything, a lot of the traditionalists remain convinced that it's a fad bound to die. Yet, for the group, and myriad others, it's a gentle drip of dopamine hooked straight to the veins for a couple of hours every week.
"You play on a weekday night," says Ashray Jain, "and it gives you a sort of high. It's the best of sort of high because you wake up the next morning without a hangover."
When Vimalraj Jayachandran won tennis gold at the Khelo India University Games (representing Madras University) in Bhubaneswar in 2020, he was looking ahead to a promising tennis career. Yet, these days, Jayachandran, 27, is making a name for himself in a totally different sport. Yep, you guessed it. "It (the tennis career) wasn't going anywhere," Jayachandran, who has an official ATP Tour landing page, tells this daily. "There was a lack of sponsors and I was looking around."
That existential angst led him to pickleball. Letting go can be hard but having learned the grammar of a new sport, he could not be more happier. "I won Khelo India and all that, I still do commentary for most of the Slams, I did commentary for the Paris Olympics... having said all that, pickleball is slowly transforming into my first love. I'm now playing it professionally." Pickleball's critics — and there are an awful lot — claim that the sport has literally placed its tanks in front of tennis' lawns (you can safely add badminton and table tennis as well) and if the authorities don't do much about it, they will lose more and more players. Novak Djokovic himself voiced his concerns a few months ago.
But, at least in the short-term, those concerns seem to be misplaced even if there are rumours that pickleball could have an outside shot at making a run for the Olympics in 2032 (like in many parts of the Western world, it's said to be the fastest growing sport in Australia).
Coming back to Jayachandran, how did he find the transition? "It's been six months since I touched my tennis racquet," he says. "I'm now investing all my time in pickleball.
"The one thing I will tell you is it's very easy to pick up, the age doesn't matter. Compared to tennis and other sports, anybody can pick up a paddle and play. It's easy to play but tough to master."
The 21-strong WhatsApp group will agree. None of them have a DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating), the sport's global ranking system. At the moment, going by DUPR, Jayachandran is South India's best.
It's more impressive when you consider that Tamil Nadu in itself has over 1000 players, either at the recreational or elite level. That's a jump of 5x in under a year. "The sport has enjoyed exponential growth over the last six months or so," says U Mohit Kumar, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Pickleball Association (TNPA). "My initiation into the sport was through my father who was playing it in his friend's garage in 2019. I was excited about it because you feel good when a 60-year-old can play some kind of sport.
"That was the initial focus when we came together to create the Association. We wanted players, including women's players, elders... build a happy, healthy community. It's an all age-sport and it doesn't discriminate based on gender," Kumar, who also doubles as a joint secretary for the All India body, says.
Speaking on the sport's growth in Chennai, Kumar estimates that there are about 12-15 pickleball venues in the city. "You take three courts to a venue, there's probably 40 courts in the city."
Irrespective of whether it's a weekday or a weekend, Anuj Vignesh can be found on one of those 40 courts. He watches cricket in his day job but he moonlights as somebody who religiously avoids the kitchen (a pickleball no-go zone with a few exceptions) while winning points.
He got sucked in because of the 'curiosity'. "Everybody wanted to try it and I was no different," he says. "It's very easy on the body, unlike, say, tennis or badminton.
"Whenever I play badminton, I'm done for the whole week after two games. With pickleball, I can keep going for the whole day."
Tales like Vignesh' are plenty; a one-time recreational badminton player who has turned his back on it for an easier alternative. But he begs to differ. "Both can co-exist," he says. "As a movie buff, the closest parallel I can draw is streaming. Everyone used streaming to say that it was a threat to big-screen experience. But people who like that will go watch movies in the theatre. It's not going to be a case of either or."
While the sport has had lots of PR and word of mouth to drive a lot of people into the badminton-sized courts, the naysayers have not been far behind. Over the last few months, Insta reels mocking the sport have compounded by the hour.
Hita Rangarajan and Chayanka Marlecha have seen those reels but they are not willing to be gaslit by people 'who are sitting at home and sending us those reels while we are actually out here (points their hands towards the court), getting some physical exercise'. "People have told told me that this is a dummy sport, people have sent me reels," Marlecha says. "But it's better than sitting at home and sending me reels and memes saying this is a sport for retired people."
Apart from the obvious advantages the sport has at the recreational level — gender agnostic, age-friendly and equipment being available in situ — it's also partner friendly. In that small organic WhatsApp group, there are as many as four couples. Jain loves it that Marlecha is as enthusiastic as him towards the sport. "Otherwise I would have a tough time justifying my absence from home every night," he laughs. "It's 100% a couples activity and both of us are very competitive and the abuses can sometimes can continue till the time we reach home," adds Marlecha.
It's pretty much the same thing for Rangarajan. "We rarely do any activity together," she says. "It's nice that we can do this together, it's mentally also very relaxing."
On a Wednesday night during Navaratri, Marlecha and Jain are sweating it out at 11.30 PM. They are kind of proving the point they had made earlier. "This is much better than going out clubbing or drinking with friends. It's also super fun."
Fun, then, seems to be the sport's ultimate currency. It was referenced by Anusha Srinivasaraghavan as well. While she won't be swapping her beloved badminton racquet for a paddle anytime soon, she liked it. "It's fun enough to go with friends and muck about, and relax while socialising, but serious enough to make you think why you can't play a good enough cross-court shot or kick yourself for being an amateur cook and entering the kitchen."
Jayachandran, who also takes coaching classes, reckons there's lot of money in pickleball. There's more than a grain of truth in his assessment. There are already multiple Indian as well as international leagues (the worth of those leagues is ATP Challenger level prize money). One of the Indian-based leagues, set to start soon, is going to be promoted by Andre Agassi. The Chennai-based player also mentions that the appearance fee could go up to Rs 12.5 lakh.
Facilities are also waking up to this. When Ice Water Arena was constructed, it came with an astroturf for an indoor football 5s. But because the facility is not being used on a regular basis, they are planning on tearing it up for more pickleball courts.
The next challenge for this sport is simple enough, at least at the recreational level. Will it go the futsal way, a one-time Indian fad? Or is it here to stay?
2025 could hold a few clues. For the time being, though, it's going nowhere. Soon, it will be Monday. One person in that group will create a poll. A new cycle will begin.