Get into a pickle

An American ball game is making a big hit in India, quite literally

Indians love pickles. And their yen for such types of relish is gaining an entirely new meaning in the form of a ball game that’s become a big hit in America in more ways than one and is now doing the same on our shores, perhaps as a precursor to the long-awaited, long-deferred, India-US trade deal.

The National Media Centre, where Bunny and I live, is all agog with a proposal made by some members of the community to introduce a game called pickleball. 

A cross between badminton, ping pong, and tennis, pickleball was invented in Seattle in 1965 by three friends who devised it as a sport in which the whole family could participate.

They designed a badminton-style court, its length divided by a hip-high net. Equipped with extra large ping pong-style paddles, players hit a perforated plastic ball over the net for their opponents to strike back in return.

The game soon gained popularity across US and abroad, as an inclusive sport which all could enjoy, irrespective of age, gender, and fitness levels.

Pickleball’s rapidly growing fan club caused much conjecture about its nomenclature. Why is pickleball called pickleball? What’s a ball game got to do with a savoury preserve like aam ka achaar? 

If it’s a hotch-potch of different games, why not ting tong (tennis and ping pong) or tenpington (tennis, ping pong, and badminton)?

One school of thought had it that the game was named after the family dog, who was called Pickle and was given to grabbing the plastic ball in his jaws and devising a catch-me-if-you-can sport of his own with the players of the abruptly interrupted game giving chase in hot pursuit.

However, rigorous research subsequently established that the dog was named after the game, and not the other way round. 

The accepted theory is that the term derives from rowing, in which a ‘pickle boat’ refers to a craft the patchwork crew of which has been selected from different teams, in much the same way as pickleball has been sourced from different games. 

Whatever its origins, welcome to pickleball. Getting into a pickle has never been such a ball.

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