Thousands of Hyderabadis were present to welcome Olympian athlete PV Sindhu and her coach Pullela Gopichand when they landed in the city on 22 August.
While the Hyderabadi population was visibly excited to greet their champion, the deputy chief minister of Telangana, who was also very excited at the occasion, might have unintentionally written off Gopichand.
"We are planning to give Sindhu proper coaching so that she can fetch gold next time," said the politician.
This could definitely be a wrong time for Ali to pass such a statement when the whole nation is praising Gopichand and his protege for their dedication to the sport and the feat they achieved in Rio.
Gopichand was Saina Nehwal's coach when she won the bronze at women's singles badminton event at 2012 London Olympics. During the reign of the Chandrababu Naidu government, Gopichand was awarded five acres of land to start his academy which has given us shuttlers such as Srikant, Nehwal, Sindhu.
Twitteratis immediately tweeted out their anger at Ali's statement:Additional coach fr PV Sindhu to make her win gold?Dumbest quote of the day Mr Mahmood Ali #PVSindhu #GopichandPullela #Telangana
— kartik murthy (@krtik85) August 22, 2016
CM Mahmood Ali should be given proper coaching so that next time he makes sense. #gopichand #PVSindhu #Telangana
— Zaphod (@pointitoutman) August 22, 2016
There can't be a better coach than Gopichand, wat do u mean by proper coaching you moron@ani_news
— Sudhaputra Ratnakar (@GabbarSanghi) August 22, 2016
@ANI_news Does not man know what he is talking. P>Gopichand needs a bigger helping hand so he cud groom many more players.
— anil kohli (@anilkohli54) August 22, 2016