After deriding Mayank Agarwal and India's domestic setup, former Australian player and current commentator Kerry O''Keeffe has landed himself in another controversy for taking a dig at the name of Cheteshwar Pujara.
O'Keeffe, who is currently employed with host broadcasters Fox Cricket in Australia, can also be heard on Sony Six sporadically. He has been facing difficulties all through the Test match trying to pronounce the names of Indian cricketers, Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara. He continued with the narrative and then even went on to proclaim that Cheteshwar was a very inappropriate Indian name.
While it is not out of the ordinary for foreign experts to face difficulty in pronouncing Indian names, this matter crossed the line when Shane Warne asked O''Keeffe about his difficulty about the same.
O'Keeffe responded with, "Why would you name your kid Cheteshwar, Jadeja," accompanied by chuckles from his fellow commentators on air.
Twitter slams the commentator
Twitter blasted the commentator for making fun of Indian names despite him not being able to pronounce the same.
Has O'Keefe already decided that he is doing his final commentary stint? Coz this ain't comms. These are just bad, racist remarks. #AUSvIND
— Aishu Haridas (@imaishu_) December 29, 2018
The Australian commentary used to be a pleasure to listen to. Now it’s just disappointing. Plain disappointing whichever lens I look at it from. Ignorant, slanted, grudging.
— Jatin Paranjape (@jats72) December 29, 2018
If these Aussie comms can’t even pronounce Ravindra Jadeja properly, they should actually stop commentating. And asking ‘Why would you name your kid Cheteshwar?’ - that is the pits of commentary. Not outraging. Just calling out shit commentary #AUSvIND
— Hemant (@hemantbuch) December 29, 2018
.@FoxCricket - Don't know if this makes an impact but can there a place where people can opine on the commentary? If the esteemed people in place, can't pronounce names, shouldn't they be making fun of their inability more?
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) December 29, 2018
KOK is having a nightmare of a Test and is going to be roasted. But can we please ask what the heck those fellow commentators are doing laughing at his attempts at humor? They ought to be roasted too
— Sidvee (@sidvee) December 29, 2018
This is not the first time O'Keeffe has landed himself in controversy. Earlier, he ridiculed Mayank Agarwal for getting all his runs against 'canteen staff' referring to the Indian domestic circuit.
"Apparently he got the triple [century] against the Railways canteen staff," O'Keeffe, said during commentary on the first day of the Test match, referring to Mayank Agarwal's triple century against Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy.
He was roasted on social media for his comments and was forced to apologise saying that the comments were "tongue in cheek".
