O’Keefe slammed for uncharitable comments

Former Australian cricketer-turned-commentator Kerry O’Keefe made an uncharitable comment about Indian domestic cricket while undermining Mayank Agarwal’s triple century in the Ranji Trophy.

The 71-year-old O’ Keefe was slammed on the social media for making distasteful remarks while commentating alongside Mark Waugh and Shane Warne on Fox Sports. O’Keefe said Agarwal’s triple ton came against “canteen staff”.

“Apparently, he got the triple (ton) against the Railways canteen staff,” he said before joking about chefs and waiters opening the bowling.

Coming from someone who has taken just 53 wickets in 24 Tests, less than three wickets per Test, at an expensive average of 38.07 and a strike rate of 101.5 balls per wicket, the comment was a bit rich.

O’Keefe’s comments were dubbed racist and stereotyping in the social media, forcing the former leg-spinner to issue an apology.

“I was mentioning the runs Agarwal got in first class cricket in India and there’s been a reaction.

“There was no way I was demeaning the standard, it was tongue in cheek. There are lots of runs scored so apologies if anyone out there took offence,” he said.

One of the twitter users going by the name Adelaide Barmies said: “O’Keefe is a buffoon. That diatribe on the #Ranji Trophy competition was: a. Classic casual racism, b. Disgracefully inaccurate. Strong competition providing an excellent breeding ground for test cricket. I thought we’d got rid of this rubbish with 9 losing the gig.”

Broadcast journalist Melinda Farrell slammed the stereotyping of cricket set up of a particular country.

“It might just be me, but it’s pretty uncool to ridicule the first class comp of another country while using dubious stereotypes for a cheap laugh...”, she tweeted.