Telangana DyCM offers to provide Sindhu new coach

Hyderabad, Aug 22: Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali today courted controversy by reportedly saying that the state government would provide a new coach to Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu, so that she may do even better, a statement his office later said was quoted "out of context".

"Our Telangana daughter has earned a name in the entire world. We intend to give a very good coach to Sindhu going forward. Her (present) coach (Pullela Gopichand) is also very good. But in addition to that, going forward in any international match, we are sure that she will bring a gold medal," he was quoted as saying by electronic media.

His reported statement went viral on social media, with many seeing it as an "insult" to Gopichand, a former All England Badminton Champion who runs an academy at Gachibowli here where Sindhu has trained.

Ali later left for Mumbai to attend a function to sign some agreements on irrigation projects with Maharashtra government and was not reachable for comments.

But his office clarified that "it's a generalised statement and he was quoted out of context. What he meant was to have international coaches for better performance of players from Telangana. He did not mean anything against Gopichand."

PTI