The PWR DUPR events will kick off in India through the India Masters on 24th October, 2024. In an exclusive chat, Pranav Kohli, the CEO of Pickleball World Rankings and PWR India League, envisions maximum reach of Pickleball to the people through these PWR events.
For a newcomer in Pickleball, what is PWR DUPR?
Pranav Kohli: DUPR is a rating system. It allows you to compete fairly with other players and gives you a rating. If you are a DUPR-rated 3-4 player, you can play in a certain tournament; if you are a DUPER-rated 4-5, you can play in some other event. It allows a lot of fairer kinds of competition, specifically for amateur players.
PWR is a ranking system that is more of a composite number. We have different forms like PWR 50, 100, 200, 400, 700, 1000 and 2000. And depending on which type of sanction event it is, those are the kind of pro-players you will see in the Open category. A PWR 50 event is generally a beginner event and is a type of community engagement programme. But from here, the aspiration to go pro begins. You start earning points from here. Then you slowly go into 100, 200…and once you go to the 400 category you need those points to qualify to play in the Open category. For example, the PWR DUPR India Masters scheduled at Delhi is a PWR 700 event.
So, to sum up, PWR is a ranking that gives you points, while DUPR is a rating that is between 3 and 8, and on that rating, you can figure out how good a player is at a particular skill level.
Is there any uniqueness of PWR India Masters event?
Pranav Kohli: For every tournament we do, the idea is to take care of three key stakeholders in our ecosystem- the players, sponsors, and vendors or people who work for us. Eventually, our actual shareholders benefit from these three. I would say that there’s nothing unique; it’s a tournament and I do not want to claim that mine is better. The players are given a priority and I want them to come whole heartedly and experience that. Along with the players, our main objective is to take care of the other two key stakeholders within our ecosystem. That’s how we envision these events to be.
Why it is called India Masters and not World Championships?
Pranav Kohli: I think World Championship is a nomenclature. Anybody can come and say that a particular event is a world championship. I believe that we have to be a little more careful about the term world championship. We are calling the first PWR India tournament not a world championship, but India Masters.
How the PWR DUPR events aim to reach far and wide?
Pranav Kohli: The more and more this type of events happen in India, it will give a boost to Pickleball in India. It’s a great way for the community to have a pathway to go beyond playing regularly. We know, everybody wants to compete and Pickleball allows and has that ecosystem where pros and amateurs can compete in events as per their skill level. Another very important aspect is, these PWR events, though being international events, will not be restricted to big city like Mumbai, but take place in other cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
The infrastructure is already available in those cities. Like in Ahmedabad-there are so many courts opened up there. Surat, Hyderabad, and Bangalore are the other cities where there are so many courts. Chennai and Kolkata are also growing. So I think infrastructure is growing because there is demand. People are eager to play in those cities and we all know that once people start playing Pickleball they continue playing it for a longer time.
So organising PWR-kind of events in those cities allows the proper use of the infrastructure and also helps the investors to monetize it better. Our objective in bringing an event to the city is to have a snowball effect on the Pickleball community. So if the community started with 5000 players before this event, we want to increase it to 20000 in the next 6 months after the event. Our objective is to reach the maximum potential of people to get them interested in Pickleball.
What will be the impact of Times Group’s involvement in PWR?
Pranav Kohli: Times Group is an investor in PWR and not rooted for one event. Times Group has taken a very conscious decision to be a part of the bigger Pickleball ecosystem. Vineet Jain, the MD of Times Group, has a vision to grow this sport and expand it as much as he can.
That’s why if you go to timesnow.com and you click on sports you see cricket and the next sport you see Pickleball. In fact on the Instagram and YouTube they have started a Pickleball Now channel. So this is the kind of attention they are giving to Pickleball. Their contribution will be massive because of the kind of outreach they have.
But isn’t Pickleball losing its essence by becoming so competitive?
Pranav Kohli: It is very important that when a sport becomes mature it needs both private and public initiatives. Yes, Pickleball has got a transition from a purely community sport to a highly competitive one. But I don’t think that it has lost its sheen.
The community engagement part still exists. I just think that the community widens with people of different aspirations. I know people in the Vasant Vihar Club who don’t care about tournaments but play day to day just for their fitness. They are very eager to introduce Pickleball to new people. So they are involved in community engagement and growing the community as per their own terms.
As the sport grows and matures what happens is that the whole pyramid structure starts to grow. So you get recreational players at the bottom (which is a huge number), and gradually the pros (as per their ratings) at the top. But the advantage of Pickleball is on whichever strata of the pyramid you are in there’s always a chance to play and enjoy the game.
