Badminton India's online coaching programme Zoom-bombed with porn; Gopichand shocked

When the Badminton Association of India (BAI) launched their first-of-its-kind online coaching programme in collaboration with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), little did they expect that it would be subject to such embarrassment and humiliation.

According to a report in the Times of India, Thursday’s special online coaching clinic for the country’s young badminton coaches had to be stopped abruptly in the middle of the session.

Apparently, vulgar images started popping up on screen during the live streaming session leaving chief Indian coach Pullela Gopichand and Indonesian coaches Agus Dwi Santoso and Namrih Suroto utterly red-faced. The images were streamed live to 700-plus coaches across the country attending the session around noon.

With the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc globally, people have been forced to stay indoors. As such, BAI and SAI are conducting a 21-day online programme via Zoom, a platform that brings video conferencing, online meetings and group messaging into one easy-to-use application. The invite for Thursday’s session was sent by SAI-Bangalore with the topic — SAI Badminton Online CDP.

The report added that Gopichand logged out immediately after the pictures started showing on screen. The young coaches attending the course were shocked by what they saw. Santoso, the new Indonesian coach, was the resource person when pictures started appearing on the screen. There was a momentary gap and then the images resurfaced. This happened a number of times," a participant was quoted saying.

https://twitter.com/BAI_Media/status/1251763345645961217

Another coach mentioned in the report that there were quite a few women coaches as well as parents and children in the programme. A few coaches also suggested that BAI and SAI should have heeded the home ministry’s (MHA) warning that Zoom does not pass muster, meaning it has lax security features.

However, SAI clarified on Thursday evening that no one had hacked the Zoom session. In a statement, SAI said that it was a ‘one-off glitch’ and that its IT department was investigating the issue ‘in detail’.

“There was a sudden technical malfunction leading to some unwanted material popping up on the screen. The session was being conducted by a senior coach of the Badminton Association of India, who also had the online technical control of the session," the statement said.