During the third Test between India and Australia, former Australian cricketer-turned-commentator Kerry O'Keeffe attracted several controversies with his border-line racist and degrading comments on air.
To begin with, the Aussie insulted India's debutant Mayank Agarwal when he said Agarwal’s triple ton in First-Class cricket 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.
Later in the match, he attracted more controversy when he targeted India's best batsman on this tour, Cheteshwar Pujara.
It all started when fellow commentator Shane Warne asked O’Keeffe about his difficulty in pronouncing the names of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja.
To which O'Keeffe arronagantly responded, "Why would you name your kid Cheteshwar Jadeja,” he said, following which his fellow commentators burst into laughter.
Fast forwarding to the Day one of the fourth Test, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar indirectly gave O'Keeffe back in regards to the issues he had with the names of the Indian cricketers.
When Tim Paine handed the ball to Marnus Labuschagne, Gavaskar cleaverly said on air, "the bowler whose name only O'Keeffe can pronounce." The veteran said that in reference to O'Keeffe's 'diffculty' of prounucing Pujara and Jadeja's names.
I loved the way Sunil Gavaskar gave it back today when Marnus Labuschagne came to bowl- "the bowler whose name only O'Keefe can pronounce"
— Purushotham Shenoy (@Shenoy13) January 3, 2019
According to the reports earlier in the day, O'Keeffe's commentary would not be on air in India because Sony Network has decided not to take the feed of Fox Sports when O’Keeffe is on air because of the backlash his comments received.