Pullela Gopichand is hopeful that construction work will begin in a month

Calcutta: Pullela Gopichand’s days as a badminton player, who challenged the world’s best at the biggest stage, are over. But there is a dream that keeps the former All-England champion going.

The good news for this 30-year-old is that his academy project has found a sponsor. Leading sports equipment manufacturers Yonex will fund Gopichand’s dream project.

Talks have advanced to a significant extent and the shuttler told The Telegraph on Thursday from Hyderabad that construction will begin in a month or two.

“Representatives from the company will come to Hyderabad and I will meet them on June 11. Details like how much they will dish out will be clear after that. But we can make a start at this juncture with what we have and Yonex will be the main sponsor. We will most probably have one or two co-sponsors from India when we think we can expand,” said Gopichand.

This academy will come up in Gacchibowli — the sports-city to have come up in the fringes of the Andhra Pradesh capital. Gopichand’s academy has been allotted five acres over there.

He revealed that he has spoken to officials in the new government, since it was the Chandrababu Naidu-led former regime that had given him the land on lease for 45 years at a subsidised rate. “They have assured us that assistance towards sports will continue. But having said that, one must say that Chandrababu did a lot for sports in the state,” said Gopichand.

“We will have 14 courts, a gymnasium, swimming pool and an aerobic centre. We hope to start by next June and it won’t be a residential centre to begin with and the pupils will predominantly be from Andhra. “We hope to make it a full-fledged academy with a school and all within a year and then we will have trainees from across the country,” Gopichand said.

He added that trainees will not be younger than 13 and not older than 17 in the initial stage and things will be streamlined once the project takes off.

Gopichand, who made a comeback to competitive badminton in the national championship where he played only in doubles earlier this year, is leaving for Canada on Saturday for an invitational event. He informed that eight players are taking part in that meet including top guns Peter Gade, Taufiq Hidayat, Richard Vaughan and Peter Rasmussen.

Gopichand will not be in Athens for the Olympics. In fact, back in November, he had hinted that in these columns. He plans to call it quits after trying to make it to the world championship later this year.