United States: ‘Pickleball’ sport

A curious sport called “Pickleball” has become one the fastest growing sports in the United States. Pickleball is a combination of elements taken from tennis, badminton and ping-pong.

How this sport get fame?

• In 1965; Joel Pritchard (then congressman from Washington) and Bill Bell (a businessman), returned to Pritchard’s home and found their families had nothing to do.
• Home was equipped with a badminton court, but they could not find a full set of badminton rackets. Then they decided to improvise with ping-pong paddles and perforated plastic ball.
• This idea worked and later players realized the ball bounced off asphalt surface well. Following this, net was lowered from 60 inches to 36 inches. Later, specific rules for were invented. Rules were borrowed from badminton.
• First permanent pickleball court was constructed in 1967.

The purpose of this was, to provide a game that whole family could play together.

When did the game reach India?

The Pickleball game reached India in 2006. A pickleball enthusiast Sunil Valavalkar brought back some paddles and balls from Canada and started giving demonstrations in Mumbai. As per All India Pickleball Association, this sport has reached to 16 states in India and has around 3,000 registered players.

Pickleball in the US

As per US Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SIFA), number of pickleball participants has increased by 21.3 per cent between 2019 and 2020. In 2020, there were 1193000 college graduate pickleball participants. As of 2022, there are 4.8 million participants across the US, amounting to a growth of 39.3 per cent.