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So after 31 years of professional tennis that also included a record seven Olympic Games 18 Grand Slams later leand P now becomes the first Asian man and the first ever Indian to be included in the international Tennis Hall of Fame leanda thank you so much for speaking to
Uh India Today many many congratulations first up uh and my question to you is going to be from that 12year old boy that was sent bag in baggage to Chennai uh did you ever think at that time that that this is where you’ll reach in the international Hall of
Fame good evening no I never really had that in uh in my mind to really worry about uh rewriting the history books or the hall of fame or the grand slams I just had a big dream in my head and a lot of passion in my heart so to come
From playing a gully cricket and Gully football on Park Street in Kolkata to now roaming the Hall of Fame at Newport P Road Island has been quite a journey there have been tremendous ups and downs and this Accolade I can name you at least a million people if not 1.4
Billion people that this Accolade belongs to um to my parents to my siblings to every single one of those 192 doubles and mixed doubles Partners I’ve had to my coaches my trainers my managers all across the world uh I humbly bow my head and say thank you to my Davis Cup captain
And to every single Indian out there um a big gratitude for all the support especially through the tough times through my career and the good ones uh This one belongs to all of you okay uh I mentioned right at the start of the interview 31 years of professional
Tennis and of course I’m going to add another 10 odd years before that so 40 plus years of you know playing tennis suddenly two years ago you retired has it been tough staying away from the tennis court because that would have been your life uh no it’s actually been really
Rewarding and really nice because uh most athletes have a professional career of about 10 years if they’re really lucky they have a professional career of about 18 years but having played professional tennis for 32 years and like you so rightly pointed out um 10 years prior to that preparing for that
It’s been a 42-year journey and uh the hotels the airports the airlanes the lounges the Arenas the playing stadiums the locker rooms the loneliness of traveling the world in an individual sport has uh definitely taken its toll I love being around family I am spending a
Lot of time with my parents who are aging at the moment and enjoying my conversations and my breakfast and dinners with them um also to uh rekindle all the friendships that I’ve had uh from my youth and now spending a lot of time with them playing golf or playing
Sport or or Gym training uh playing football uh is great fun also with the work that I do in inspiring uh kids all across the world that if I could achieve Excellence then so can they uh it’s been very rewarding uh to now having retired
Um from playing my last match on the 7th of March 2020 to now where I’m at in my life uh it still has its challenges still has its lonely tough spots but uh at least now I have my loved ones around me which makes life a lot easier okay
Life’s become easy for you but life hasn’t become easy for an Indian tennis fan that’s because you know in cricket cover a lot of cricket we often keep saying where is the next couple day we haven’t found the answer to that and my question to you is where is the next
Leander paace because there has been a bit of a lull that we’re experiencing with you not being there uh you know Mahesh retired a few years before that Sonia mza no more on the tennis court where is the next generation of Indian tennis players that’s the question everyone’s
Asking well I think Indian tennis is going through a bit of a void at the moment but from winning Junior Wimbledon in 1990 I believe that I inspired a lot of the youngsters to come out there and play sport uh from winning the Olympic medal in
1996 uh when inspired Mahesh to come out of college in America at Old Miss and play doubles with me inspired Sonia to win her grand slams inspired a lot of tennis and made tennis really cool also winning that Olympic medal in singles uh at Atlanta also inspired a lot of
Olympic individual Champions like Chile rator one is in in in in shooting you got gagan and you got AB bindra who won there in shooting also when a young n Chopra comes by and says p po it’s a very gratifying feeling but in that I feel like the feeder system the
Grassroot uh level encouragement in sport and the feeder system is a big void not just in tennis but in in most other sports other than cricket and I must commend uh the BCCI and the cricketing govering body for doing a phenomenal job through their state associations through their rural cricket
Academies on how you’ve got Champions like an MS donon coming out of jarand how you got young kids coming out of uh you look at hardik Panda one of my favorites who’s coming out of uh places when most uh people wouldn’t think that you’d have Champions coming out there
And I feel hardik will make a phenomenal Captain also down the track I feel that other sporting governance should actually learn from cricket and basically pick up on how you nurture talent in tier 2 tier three cities and go to rural areas and pick out talent
And nurture them so I that is my next Journey that is my next passion after achieving all the accolades I have achieved to now in the next 15 years my passion is to get 250 million kids across the country playing Sport and I feel that that will look after the
Grassroots Sports education and then have a feeder system so that you have youngsters in different sports coming up to challenge the guys at the top of the pyramid uh that’s uh you know heartening news to hear someone like a Leander PA now investing in grassroot programs
Because ask any sport expert he says you have to look after grassroot only then can you have a robust sporting system in place it’s lovely to know that you be investing in that investing in that Leander in fact I had a conversation with uh with your father once Dr Vace he
Stressed a lot on grassroot as well I know he worked a lot into grassroot sport but the other Point Leander is going to be that one is looking after grass road then on the other hand you have someone who’s your number one player in singles right now in AIT Nagal
Who comes out and says that listen I only have about 80,000 Rupees Indian rupees in my bank account uh when you have a scenario like that the number one player saying that what are the chances of anyone then wanting to take up tennis and making a life out of it when you
Look at a event like the IPL this is where the BCCI and the cricket governing body gets a lot of Kudos and respect in my humble opinion the BCCI as a governing body looks after their past athletes by giving them jobs umpires third umpires governance Roger B uh
Roger uncle is now the president of uh uh the the the BCCI and he’s running that show right from the front with jha so when you look at the whole governing body of of BCCI they’ve gotten the right powers that be in the right positions to make it a very successful in governing
Body and that is why IPL as one event as one league is the biggest league in the whole world it’s even bigger than Formula 1 the amount of money that is generated pertinent to the question that you ask the amount of money that is generated through corporate sponsorships of onfield branding on camera
Branding um is so immense that athletes and players get uh auctioned for millions of dollars I’m not even talking about six crores and 5 cres not even talking about 80,000 rupees that’s Nagal is talking about I’m talking about a hardik panda going for 11 crores or 12
Crores and I’m not even talking the cream of the crop let’s talk about a Rinku Singh I haven’t heard of a Rinku Singh before the sixes that he hit or after the sixes that he hit but during the IPL Rinku Singh was a a household
Name and and a legend in in Kolkata for the Night Riders so in that I feel like leagues like the IPL I feel like uh events like that I feel like governing bodies like the BCCI need to be uh learned from you need to replicate that other governing bodies of other sporting
Uh uh associations need to learn from that and look after their present athletes and look after their future athletes on Marine Drive itself there are more cricketing clubs than there are tennis clubs in the whole country and I think that is something that needs to be learned from the amount
Of money that is churned from one athlete in the IPL is more money that is spent on tennis in the in running of tennis so in that I feel like I’m always one to be very positive I’m always one to find a solution rather than sit back
On an armchair and and criticize and pull pull fingers at people and I feel that it’s important like for people like us to come back and actually do something good people like us to come back and promote the sport people like us to come back and find a way so
Through the tennis Premier League that i’ I’ve had we just finished season five and here now the league is growing year after year next year we’re hoping to take the league International and take it to Dubai or the Middle East and in that getting Indian athletes Indian tennis players to rub shoulders with
Grand Slam champions and rub shoulders with International Players so that they better their craft and also to bring corporate dollar to this or corporate rupe to this so that the athletes benefit in that I feel like sports like Javelin sports like shooting sports like pickle ball sports like that are growing
Sports like badminton are growing such leaps and Bounds look at caby League look at uh table tennis the way they’re doing look at badminton the way they’re doing I think that sports like that are really coming forward and challenging tennis where tennis was firmly the second sport after Cricket in the 90s
When I won my Olympic medal and I won my grand slams today tennis is kind of dropping as far as uh there’s a big void as far as athletes to come in so um unlike you know I don’t like sitting back and pointing fingers I want to be
The game changer I want to be the one making a difference that is why I’m going to the Grassroots through tennis through Cricket through hockey through football through track and field through swimming through physical fitness mental Fitness and emotional Fitness getting into the Grassroots to nurture athletes
To have a feeder system coming up okay that’s interesting uh because I’m go back to your uh previous answer Leander where you speak about the benefits of having the Olympic Games and and how that can help a nation become a sporting Nation but what would you tell those
That point out that that having or organizing an Olympic Games is a loss making exercise you know you lose billions of dollars which could very well be put into grassroot programs as you’re talking about or other levels of sport do you do you see a balance there
Do you see one thing being better than the other how do you see India hosting those Olympic Games well I know that uh the Olympic games are huge for an economy sure like any business you can have failures and you can have successes the Olympic Games is a phenomenal vehicle to showcase the
History and culture of India I feel that that is a big plus point to be able to showcase our tourism to be able to showcase our history to be able to boost our economy not just through the real estate itself but through the sporting Heritage that we have by bringing the
Whole world to India and showcasing what the Olympic spirit is about I myself am am an Olympic baby I grew up to parents who are captained India in sport and won an Olympic medal in 1972 and being a second generation Olympic champion I know all too well that the success
Stories of the Olympics is not only on a Podium it’s about encouraging our youth who are so caught up with social media so caught up with their smart gadgets so caught up in the modern risks of modern society and I’m not even going to mention them all our viewers know what
I’m talking about here but to nurture our youth through good health through good physical health through good mental health through teaching them leadership ship and teamwork through sport sport is a great vehicle to encourage our youth where they can get scholarships around the world to education they can get
Great jobs around the world just by being athletes and at the same time learn skills like leadership comaraderie and learn how to lose gracefully and win gracefully to me the character building that sport give I know all too well I’ve done the Olympics for seven uh Olympics consecutively and that’s 30 years of
That so in that I’ve lived my whole life as an athlete to represent my country represent my people on a global scale and I can tell you with utmost confidence that bringing the Olympics to India in 2036 will be a phenomenal effort to actually boost not only the
Economy of India but to boost the morale of the youth in our country that we can showcase goodness and well-being through sport okay I’m going to bring you back to uh tennis leand and the one question that gets asked very often when you’re talking about Indian tennis is why
Doesn’t Indian tennis achieve the kind of success that it achieves at the doubles level in singles now I remember you having watched you 1993 you know Davis Cup comes to my mind you beating Aron bosche at that time I remember you beating uh Pete sess at the pilot pen I
Remember you winning that uh you know singles medal at the uh Olympic game so so there was success there why is it that that you know for Sonia too she started off as a singles player then then went on to playing doubles and then
Won a lot of grand slams why is it that Indians are not able to replicate that in the singles form and I know you’re a big one on genetics does that play a role here yes genetics play a big role here in terms of the physicality of uh the
Demands of the sport so if you look at contact sport right like Rugby Football basketball uh Indians don’t really excel in that when you look at cerebral sports like chess badminton tennis Cricket um Indians really excel at that even if you look at H hockey which is our national
Sport when we played hockey on on grass we excelled in it we won the Olympics and then won medals at the Olympics all the way till 1980 when you look at the minute hockey moved to AstroTurf and became more physical and faster and More contact we
Haven’t done so well as as much as we did in the 70s and the 60s you know so I feel like like when you look at sport like tennis where the demands physically are so much on the physical attributes where the average height of a tennis
Player today is about 6′ 3 6′ 4 I mean I’m 510 on a good day secondly when you actually look at the mental aptitude and the physical uh aptitude of the professional athletes on the pro tour Rafa Nadal and jokovic are playing matches that last five hours 6 hours
They can barely stand in price ceremonies after the match when you look at Serena Williams Venus Williams you look at EA swch today you look at savena their physical progress is is really daunting um so in that I feel like the doubles game is more Indians are more
Made up for the doubles game I feel like uh when you look at the current tennis players I have so much respect for them because as Sumit says with a lack of funding and a lack of support they’re still out there on the international circuit working day in and day out
Traveling 99% of tennis tournament guys are outside the country they’re not in India our cricket team has the luxury of playing 70 to 80% of the year in India IPL is in India so there’s a whole world of difference when you talk about a global sport like tennis where sometimes
You have to travel to Oakland New Zealand and other times you have to travel to Machu picu Peru the the the vastness of travel and the expense of conducting a professional tennis career is immense you don’t have Association that pays for that you don’t have a governing body you don’t have a club
That bears your expenses you got to do it yourself so I have tremendous respect for every individual professional athlete not just in tennis but in track and field in badminton in shooting I mean 99% of our athletes in India outside Cricket are all doing it on
Their own fam’s esteem are all doing it on their own individual capacity and to me to every one of those boys and girls out there I tip my hat in respect for all of them they are the true Patriots of our country who go out there to be
The best that they can be in their field okay interesting I have a counterargument on the genetics uh bit as you mentioned and I’m going to quote one of your favorite sport or your most favorite sport that is that is football and it’s interesting that I’m speaking
To you on the one-year anniversary of that FIFA World Cup final which I know you were in attendance there uh watching that particular game Leon Leonel Messi winning that so the argument is you know if if physical sport and if Indians aren’t made up uh for that what do you
Make of a lonel Messi you talk about you being 510 on a good day a 5′ 6 in lonel Messi a 5 7 in Andreas inesta or a 5′ 8 in XVI Hernandez how is it that those guys with that physicality are able to compete and probably the most
Competitive sport in the world and then we as Indians struggle is it the lack of the system or is it gen again down to genetics not a bad point of view but a mediocre argument because because Leon Messi is playing in a position zavi is playing in a position that is a striker
A ball handler in the front of the field if you put lonel Messi as a defender or as a goalkeeper he wouldn’t make his Gully football team let lone play for Argentina in the World Cup if you put a certain positions need certain genetics that is the first point to answer to
Your conversation secondly is that the style of play that a Javi or a Iniesta also short guy or a p also a short guy or a messy play the style of play is very different to a ibraimovic or to a Cristiano Ronaldo right that’s one secondly you forget that Leonel Messi as
A 11-year-old was picked up by Barcelona FC picked out of buan saris and taken to Barcelona to train in now camp now I’ve trained in now Camp I know how professional their Sports Science centers are I know how professional the Sports knowledge is I know how professional their playing Arenas are I
Know how professional their online academics are which are very important to the Indian ecosystem and the Indian psychology to continue your academics while you’re taking a risk at your real profession which is Sport we’re still fighting a day and age today in the 21st century where parents are doubtful and
And and worried and rightly so that if you don’t make it and earn a living playing sport then what is your fallback so academics still become P Primary in the Indian psych psychology or in Indian culture whereas now at least our young girls are able to Avail of equal
Scholarships to American colleges as boys do because Title 9 which is basically a a technical system in the NCAA system that every University that has 3,000 or 4,000 scholarships for boys also has to have 3,000 or 4,000 scholarships for girls so any University like Harvard or UCLA or USC or the tels
That have a American football team with 133 scholarships for the boys have to equal that on the girls side so hence on the boys tennis team you maybe have two or three scholarships but on the girls tennis team you have 10 scholarships on the boys football team
Soccer team that is you in America they call it soccer there apart from American football the American soccer team on the boys side you may have 10 scholarships whereas on the girls side you have 30 scholarships so hence our Indian girls are also availing of academic
Scholarships when they go to play for a college in America and I think these are the nuances of knowledge that need to be shared with our Indian parents because you got to coach the parents just as much as you got to coach the athletes in fact even more so because where would a
Average middle class mother or father be willing to take the risk of sending their child at the age of 16 or 17 let alone at the age of 11 when I left abroad not to Chennai not to uh uh Gujarat not to harana but sending them
Abroad a 23-hour flight away to take the risk of being a professional athlete yeah so your point is valid but the argument is weak because of the fact that genetics play a huge role in terms of Indian philosophy and ethnicity and culture in terms of preparing the
Parents to build world champions is also very important in terms of the ecosystem of sport in our country okay one final question leanda before I let you go I know you’ve had a long day doing plenty of interviews and this is again pertaining to tennis uh
Just a few days ago we had the Indian team the Davis Cup team being announced to to Pakistan this is going to be the first time in 60 years that India is going to be touring Pakistan an opportunity you did not have would you be concerned about security or anything
Like that if you were one of the boys playing today and your Association said go and play there you’d do that I would have loved to have gone I always put my hand up when it comes to playing for the country and also when it comes to National Security then it it it
It’s left to the powers up in Delhi to protect us and our governing body the all- India tennis Association to protect us so I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that they will do their best to protect our team um that being said uh you could be sitting anywhere in the
World today as you can see how vulnerable the world is and a terrorist attack coming anywhere I mean my parents were in Munich Germany when Palestinian terrorist took Israeli athletes hostage and uh and so on so forth and I myself was in Atlanta sitting at the AT&T uh
Garden when a bomb go went off there so are you safe anywhere in the world today not quite sure but you have to have faith in in your own Karma you have to have faith in the powers that be that uh Sport and as as as a vehicle has always
Stood the test of time World War II was stopped so that the Olympics could continue so I I believe that the the love and the passion and the goodness of sport as a vehicle unite the world and sure are we going to have uh um negativities around the world to say the
Least show you’re going to but I believe sport is the one vehicle that is inclusive that brings the world together in competitive uh nature of Davis SC or of competition to actually bring happiness and faith and goodness around the world and and that’s what I like to
Believe and I’ve been very blessed to have played a sport like tennis which has equal prize money equal opportunity equal rights uh to Showcase around the world the goodness of sport and I think that will continue for generations and generations to come sport is the greatest way to nurture Our Youth and
Give them jobs give them education and give them a way to put bread and butter on the table especially now when there’s a lot of unability around the world Sports a great vehicle it’s interestingand you talk about that Munich Olympics they can never be anything good that comes out of
A terrorist attack but if there is something good that came out of that terrorist attack was thater Pace was conceived at around the same time because the Indian team was hauled up inside the rooms I believe they were right in front of where the Israel team
Was so I think that’s the only good thing but leanda thank you so much for being generous with your time speaking to us uh here at India today here is wishing you all the very best in your future endeavors where you talk about touching the grassroot and maybe you
Always Inspire the Next Generation but actually you know going down to the grassroot and helping them you know graduate to the next level across boort all the very best with that I always love uh being being in interviews with you you got me there on that one in the Munich Olympics and to
All our India Today viewers out there uh bring happiness and love around you the world’s in a very uh vulnerable State at the moment and with a bit of empathy and a bit of love and a bit of inclusivity you can be bring happiness to anybody this International Tennis Hall of Fame
Induction belongs to each and every one of you and I bow my head in gratitude for all the Decades of support you’ve given me J hind namaste
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The greatest sportsman from bengal kolkata who is not a cricketer or footballer
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