(When Bhavya Bishnoi accepted the responsibility of leading Rajasthan Pickleball, many expected conversations around medals, rankings, and elite athletes. Instead, the newly appointed president speaks of something far more fundamental—building a sporting culture that outlives individual champions. In an exclusive conversation with Pickleball Now, Bishnoi outlines why Rajasthan’s ambitions stretch beyond producing winners, explains why schools and grassroots participation hold the key to India’s pickleball future, reveals how artificial intelligence could reshape the sport, and makes three promises that he says fans can hold him accountable for by 2030.
Rather than measuring success by the number of medals hanging around athletes’ necks, Bishnoi believes true sporting excellence begins much earlier. For him, championships are merely the by-product of something much deeper.
Rajasthan’s Pickleball Vision
“I truly believe that medals are a manifestation or a consequence of a sporting culture or ecosystem. And so in five years from now, if Rajasthan produces medals, but the ecosystem doesn’t exist, that would be incomplete success from my point of view. So my priority would be to build a very robust ecosystem at the grassroots in Rajasthan, where we find students playing the sport very actively in schools, where districts are very, very robust and dynamic and active as well, organizing leagues and tournaments. So at every level in the state, the sport should find a lot of resonance,” he highlighted.
“And once that’s done, I’m very confident that medals will automatically and very naturally follow. Just to close that thought, I do believe that Rajasthan can become a very, very important center for pickleball. We have all the makings of it. What we need to do is build that ecosystem around it,” Bhavya continued.
Why Rajasthan Can Surpass Other States in Pickleball?
With states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka already investing heavily in pickleball, Rajasthan faces stiff competition. But Bhavya insists the state’s ambitions extend far beyond building a handful of elite academies.
“Some of the states you mentioned, undoubtedly, they have certain centers of excellence, which I think is part of the solution. It’s definitely important to have certain institutions which are honing and nurturing talent at the highest level.
But that’s one part of the story. What needs to happen alongside is, as I said, ecosystem development as an association; From my point of view, what we’re trying to do here is really to provide an enabling ecosystem to players to actually play and flourish. And so once that ecosystem exists and is developed at the grassroots, young athletes will most naturally, not only from Rajasthan, but from outside as well, come to Rajasthan to play,” the Rajasthan Pickleball Association President reckoned.
“If a young athlete comes to Rajasthan or is from Rajasthan and wants to play the sport, I want them to know that they will find quality coaching, they will find courts in the vicinity of where they live, they’ll find good support backed by science, technology, and so on and so forth. So these are things that I actually want to focus on beyond just creating individual centers of excellence, so to speak,” he asserted.
Reimagining Pickleball As A School Sport
Having experienced competitive sport himself before entering public life, Bhavya argues that India’s biggest challenge isn’t infrastructure alone—it’s the way sport is perceived within the education system.
“I’ve been an athlete myself growing up, been very closely involved with sports, having played cricket, swimming, athletics at the state level, and my siblings have done professional sport also. Sport is something which I’ve always been very closely involved with. And something I’ve thought about also earlier as an athlete, and now as a policymaker. And it’s a very good question. And there are a lot of things that I want to do,” Bhavya opened up.
“But I think at the very core of it, what really needs to happen is to change the mentality of making sports just an extracurricular activity, and instead, treat it as a very important and core part of education itself. For me, sports is a very potent and important educational tool; it teaches you so much about life itself, it builds character, and so on. So as far as pickleball is concerned, if I were designing a curriculum or a policy around it, I would like for it to become a very important part of the sporting culture and the educational culture in every school,” he revealed.
“And the thing with pickleball especially is that the barriers to entry are very low. It’s a very accessible sport across age groups, across income groups, across backgrounds; it’s very easy for a child or for an older person to pick up the sport. So I think it’s a great leveler; it’s a great equalizer. And so, in a nutshell, I would create that mindset change around sports generally, and with pickleball, make it a very important part. of a child’s learning in schools, which is something that I would do,” the Indian politician remarked.
India’s Global Pickleball Future
While many see India’s rapid rise in pickleball as encouraging, the Rajasthan Pickleball President believes the country has only scratched the surface. In his view, sustainable success will depend less on headline victories and more on strengthening the sport’s foundations.
“I think India is already playing a very important role in the global pickleball arena. And I think a lot of credit should go to people like Aditya Khanna, Ashish Khanna, and others in the IPA ecosystem. Aditya is a treasurer at the Global Pickleball Federation as well. He’s involved with the Asian pickleball ecosystem also. He’s somebody who is actively pushing for this sport across the globe. So I think we are on the right track; we are moving fast, and we are becoming an important player as far as global pickleball is concerned,” he mentioned.
“But I always come back to the same thing, where it’s not just about one single champion or one single event or something; it’s something which is so important to develop the grassroots. So if the roots aren’t developed well, one can’t expect the fruits to come in a fruitful or healthy manner. So a lot is happening. And a lot more still has to be done in terms of building that ecosystem. But I’m quite optimistic about where we’re headed with pickleball globally,” Bhavya said.
The conversation then shifted beyond the court. Could India one day become for pickleball what it has already become for software—a global exporter of expertise, innovation and technology?
“I think there’s a great reset which is happening globally. You know, when one looks around the world and we see the kind of developments happening, fortunately or unfortunately, you know, with wars, with different things going on internally in Europe and elsewhere, I think a major reset will happen, generally speaking. And I think India will very likely play an important role across the board, across different sorts of arenas in different sectors. And I think sports is one such sector where India can actually, you know, change them, redefine the rules of the game and actually become a very important center where, you know, people from across the world come here for knowledge exchanges, they come here for technology exchanges and so on,” the Indian politician added.
“And I think India is a country where technology has always been at the core of everything that we do. And I think when we look globally as well, you know, India has a lot of credibility and a lot of strength when it comes to things like technology. And now with AI also coming into the picture, I think a lot of things will change anyway. I think what really is needed is a vision and the will to actually, you know, take that leadership role. And as I mentioned earlier, I think India is already on the right track to do that,” he further added.
AI and the Future of Pickleball
Artificial intelligence is reshaping industries at unprecedented speed, and sport is no exception. Bishnoi believes those who embrace the technology early will enjoy a decisive competitive advantage in the years ahead.
“AI is going to be a very important part of all of our lives. And I truly believe that the changes which have happened in the last 300 years, we will see more change in the next 10 years as a result of AI. And one cannot choose not to; people who don’t choose to engage with AI will fall back. So I think, first and foremost, we need to really come to grips with AI; we need to accept it, try and be curious about what. AI really is, and, you know, really play with it and engage with it. In sport as well as in other sectors, I think AI will enhance and improve the way things are done. In terms of specific manifestations, I think it’s still left to see what AI will actually do,” Bhavya spoke at length.
“As I see it right now, I think what AI can do is to help professional athletes, professional pickleball players, actually go the extra mile. Because I think once you reach a certain level of skill set, then the differentiator becomes very marginal. And things like mental coaching, technological interventions, these things actually give you that little extra edge over your competitors. So I think at the professional level, AI quite immediately will have a role to play. And at the grassroots level, I think it really will come down to how well we understand what AI has to offer and how well we engage with it.”
Rajasthan Pickleball Association President Bhavya Bishnoi’s Three Promises for 2030
As the interview drew to a close, we asked Bhavya to put his vision on record. If Pickleball Now returns in 2030, what are the promises he would be willing to be judged against?
“You’re asking a politician to make a promise. I think that’s a very dangerous proposition. Are you sure you want to go down that route? But I think, jokes apart, if I’m still engaged with the sport of pickleball, which I hope I will be in 2030, two or three things that I see on the road ahead. The first thing would be that, by 2030, pickleball will be a grassroots-level sport in Rajasthan, where you will find it being played very actively,” he revealed.
“I don’t want to go so far as to say it’ll be compared to cricket because cricket is something which is more than a sport in India today. But I think pickleball has the makings of a sport which can find a lot of resonance and excitement for people everywhere. So I want it to be a grassroots-level sport where there’s awareness, there’s interest in players and enthusiasts alike,” Bhavya said.
“Secondly, Rajasthan will also be producing some of the biggest and best world-class athletes in pickleball. So I want to have centers of excellence as well, where players from Rajasthan and even outside are being trained, where they’re receiving coaching, technology, nutrition, and so on. And they are playing at the global stage and actually winning medals for the country,” the Indian politician remarked.
“And thirdly, the ecosystem: I want to come back to the ecosystem that I was talking about. It’ll be the most robust ecosystem for sports development in the country across sports. So these three pillars, I think, would really define what Rajasthan pickleball will look like, to my mind, in the next five to 10 years,” he concluded.
Throughout the conversation, one message remained remarkably consistent. Bhavya Bishnoi never reduced pickleball’s future to medals, rankings or short-term success. Instead, he spoke repeatedly about culture, education, technology and long-term ecosystem building. If Rajasthan can translate that vision into reality over the coming years, the state may not only emerge as one of India’s pickleball powerhouses—it could also become a blueprint for how emerging sports are developed across the country.
