Pipinya and Pickle Island that bounced off from their love for Pickleball
View(s):By Arrenga Nadaraja
Are you a Pickler? A fan on Pickleball? For three enthusiasts -Fazi Jameel, Zafi Jameel and Dilan Hamid, the paddle sport has become a way of life. Pipinya – their Pickleball court was launched in January 2024 purely as a passion project.
Dilan Hamid
First introduced in the USA in 1965, Pickleball combines components of tennis, badminton and table tennis and is played by men, women and children of all ages. Fazi saw it for the first time on Youtube during COVID-19 and”fell in love with the sport.” They started Pipinya in Moratuwa and have so far hosted eight tournaments and formed a company that helps people develop courts for themselves.
Pickleball is played with a perforated plastic ball and a paddle on a small court the size of a doubles badminton court, (20×44 ft) with a net lower than a tennis net. You can either play singles or doubles. In Pickleball, the player who is serving must be behind the baseline at the time of contact. The two bounce rule involves a bounce on each side after the serve. The court is divided by a centre line. The ‘kitchen’ is a ‘specific non-volley zone on each side’. A game is played to 11 points, with a win recorded when a team is two points ahead.
Having had an interest in sports when he schooled at D.S.Senanayake College, Fazi wanted to get back on the field after being in advertising for 10 years. Hooked on the game from the start Fazi acquired a makeshift court in a warehouse space. But interest in the game took time to build and Fazi says for the first six months, “Dilshan (co-owner of Pickle Island) was my best customer.” They have now seen a surge of people growing into the sport, he says.
Their goal, says Fazi is to expand and he has been working to set up courts across the country and liaise with schools, sports coordinators and the Sports Ministry. He is also in discussion with the All India Pickleball Association to host an Indo- Sri Lanka collaborative tournament.
Zafi Jameel
YouTube was our mentor and tutor, says Zafi Jameel who enjoys the sport. “We would put in pretty much entire workdays into playing, including the weekends, rain or shine,” he says, adding that they were hands on at the beginning teaching a lot of people. Now he plays mostly in his free time in the evenings.
A challenge for them he says is keeping up with the fast-paced development of the sport.
“The game is like fast-paced physical chess,” says Dilan Hamid. “People play for hours, laughing and demanding one more game. It’s easy to pick up,” he adds. Pickleball has contributed to his health in a positive way and he notes that you need no more than two or three sessions to learn it.
Ronali Michael, co-founder and director of Pickle Island first started playing with her husband Dilshan at Pipinya. They were addicted from the beginning, and it led to them building their own courts — Pickle Island. Ronali urges everyone to give it a try, adding that anyone can learn the sport. Their courts are constantly booked out till midnight every day, so much so she herself cannot get a booking. Their youngest players are from 7-8 years old and oldest is 80 years old.
Fazi Jameel
Blaine Casiechetty, supervisor / manager at Pickle Island tells us that he was skeptical at first, thinking this was a game for old people, but once he started playing and understood how competitive the rules are, he couldn’t stop. He notes Pickleball isn’t “just hype” but became more of a lifestyle for him to help keep fit too.
Ronali Michael
If you haven’t tried it yet, go book on the Play. Book app. Pipinya has courts in Moratuwa and Negombo, while Pickle-Island is at the Independence Arcade, Misfits arena in Boralesgamuwa, Coconut Court in Ahangama and at the Morven Hotel in Colombo 3. The usual cost is Rs. 4,000 per hour.
Find Pipinya online at https://pipinya.com/, Instagram or Facebook @Pipinya
or call +94 70 661 2227 or +94 70 177 5577. They are open from 4 – 10 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday.
Visit Pickle Island at Arcade Independence Square, Colombo 7 or find them on Instagram @thepickleisland. Their hotline is
+94 77 886 0812. Pickle Island is open from 6-9 a.m. and 5-11p.m., Monday to Sunday and on weekends from 6 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Pix by Akila Jayawardena
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