Suryaveer Singh Bullar, the President of the Indian Pickleball Affiliation and Pickleball World Cup gold medallist, sees a brilliant future forward for pickleball, particularly in India. This future is so brilliant, in reality, that Bullar sees the game reaching rarefied standing within the subsequent years or so.
A part of the explanation Bullar is so bullish about pickleball, significantly in India, is the institution of the Indian Pickleball League (IPBL), which is about to happen on 1–7 December 2025, with six pioneer groups aiming for pickleball glory.
“Pickleball is on the rise, as it’s already the fastest-growing sport in India and the world. So I see the game solely rising 12 months after 12 months, and I see the league getting larger and making the game larger in India. I’m very assured that pickleball goes to be the second-largest sport after cricket in India,” Bullar informed Occasions Now in a latest interview.
Cricket, after all, is the preferred sport of India. It’s to India what baseball is to the US, or basketball is to the Philippines, or soccer is to so many international locations. Cricket is so in style within the Indian subcontinent that some mistake it to be India’s nationwide sport (spoiler alert: it isn’t).
In Bullar’s estimation, this progress will partially be fuelled by the IPBL, which was launched by The Occasions Group to present India’s pickleball stars and rising expertise a platform to compete and have enjoyable on a country-wide setting. It’s India’s official and solely nationwide league for pickleball, and is sanctioned by the IPA, which is in flip recognised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports activities of India.
Set to unveil in every week’s time, Bullar divulged to Occasions Now that the IPBL is already drawing plenty of curiosity, a lot in order that enlargement, in response to the IPA president, may be very a lot on the desk.
“Completely. In reality, after the occasion on the 18th [formal announcement of the league’s first five teams], there was an enormous demand for groups,” Bullar mentioned. “There are such a lot of individuals who have been reaching out to me and different folks, and I feel there are positively going to be extra groups subsequent 12 months.”
Evidently, pickleball actually has made inroads in India, and the highway forward appears brighter than ever.
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