Gopichand Badminton Academy

Gopichand Badminton Academy is a badminton training facility in Hyderabad, India. Founded by the 2001 All England Open Badminton Champion, Pullela Gopichand, the facility trains several badminton players such as P. V. Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap, Srikanth Kidambi, Arundhati Pantawane, Gurusai Datt, Arun Vishnu and Sameer Verma.

By the time he won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, Pullela Gopichand was already 27 years old and was struggling with a few injuries. With not many playing years left, Gopichand decided to bring a world-class training facility for the next generation. With that intention, Gopichand decided to form a badminton academy. Soon after his well-recognized win in England, the Government of Andhra Pradesh awarded him 5 acres (2.0 ha) of land in 2003. The land in Hyderabad's Gachibowli area was offered as a lease at a very nominal rate for 45 years. At the same time, he started talks with Yonex for sponsorship and also wanted to involve a foreign coach.

In the following year, Gopichand formulated his plans for the academy and approached Nimmagadda Prasad, a distant relative and a serial entrepreneur, to raise money for this venture. At that time, Prasad sold Matrix Laboratories, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, to an American pharma company, Mylan Inc.. Since Prasad was convinced about Gopichand's idea, he immediately offered US$500,000 and his assistance in raising an additional amount of US$2 million. With cricket being a more popular sport, Gopichand and Prasad found it hard to raise additional money from other sources. Over time, Prasad increased his contribution to US$1.25 million. Gopichand's wife and former Olympian, P. V. V. Lakshmi, was very supportive of him and even contributed to the effort of securing monetary support. Despite other donations, Gopichand could only gather US$1.75 million. It was then he decided to mortgage his family home and raise the remaining money for the already delayed project. In 2008, the facility was eventually completed at the cost of US$2.5 million.

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