Kerry O’Keeffe, an undistinguished former cricketer from Australia and a radio show host has caused a massive controversy after his commentary took a racist turn to abuse Indian first class teams and also test cricketer Mayank Agarwal, who incidentally made his debut today at Boxing day test match at Melbourne.
Reportedly, former Australian leg-spinner O’Keeffe while commentating for Fox Sports tried to undermine the debutant Mayank Agarwal’s brilliant knock of 76 against the Australia cricket team at the MCG. O’Keeffe perhaps disturbed by the dominance of the Indian team against Australia went on the question the quality of Indian first-class cricket system by racially abusing players who play in domestic cricket.
O’Keefe said that players like Mayank Agarwal may have scored his 300 against “some canteen staff or waiters” referring to the spectacular runs he scored in India’s first-class cricket tournament, Ranji Trophy, which included a brilliant triple century against Maharashtra in 2017.
Social media users were shocked to the racist comments made by an underachieved cricketer against a batsman who has been performing brilliantly in the last couple of years. Some users took a strong offence against O’Keeffe for racially abusing Indians as “Canteen people” and “waiters”.
Mark Waugh said that 50 average in India is like 40.
Kerry O’Keefe said that Mayank Agarwal scored 300 against some Canteen people & Waiters.
Basically trying to prove that it is very Easy to score runs in Indian Domestic cricket & that Mayank’s record means nothing.— Dharmil Sanghani (@sanghanidharmil) December 26, 2018
Casual racism from Kerry O’Keefe. Mayank deserved his spot in the XI regardless of how he performs this tour. If scoring 300 in Ranji is as easy as he thinks, let any Aussie batsman come here and try to score one. I bet most of them would fail. #AUSvIND https://t.co/aUDPY1yxwY
— Shreyas (@niyamagaana) December 26, 2018
Another cricket fan said that the domestic tournaments which O’Keefe racially abused have produced great players like Virat Kohli, who has been hammering the Australian cricket team every time he tours Australia.
Kerry O’Keefe pls remember from the same domestic Indian system Virat Kohli the best batsman in the world comes playing agnst many Indian “canteen xi”. And he is the best playing agnst Australia’s intnl team according to Keefe Aussie team is also “canteen xi” .
— Sachin Yadav (@SachinYrko) December 26, 2018
Melinda Ferrel, a sports journalist also dismissed the statements made by O’Keefe saying that it is not proper to ridicule first-class cricket tournaments.
It might just be me, but it’s pretty uncool to ridicule the FC comp of another country while using dubious stereotypes for a cheap laugh…
— Melinda Farrell (@melindafarrell) December 26, 2018
The Australian Cricket team rocked by a humiliating Sandpaper-gate scandal recently has not performed well against the visiting Indian team as expected by their fans and Australian cricket management. Some of the Australians perhaps frustrated by the brilliant performance of the Indian cricket team has resorted to racial abuses to undermine their achievement.
