Kerry O'Keeffe apologises for 'Railway canteen staff' statement in Fox commentary
After making a ridiculous comment by stating that Mayank Agarwal’s highest FC score of 304 not out came against 'canteen people & waiters' in the Ranji Trophy, he then apologised for it. The former Aussie spinner later said that it was a 'tongue-in-cheek' comment and didn’t want to be offensive.
Kerry O'Keeffe has been on a spree of his own in the Fox Commentary box and made himself a likeable character among the viewers. However, he landed himself in hot soup when he made comments on Mayank Agarwal’s First-Class credentials during day one of the Boxing Day Test between India and Australia at the MCG.Â
Before the start of the day’s play, the former Aussie spinner suggested that Mayank had scored his maiden first-class triple century against “canteen staff” in India - a name that he gave to Railways team.Â
“Apparently he got the triple against the Railways canteen staff,” O’Keeffe said before joking about a kitchen hand opening the bowling.
However, that didn’t go down well with Cricinfo’s correspondent Melinda Farrell, who tweeted that out, slamming the Aussie for ridiculing another country’s first-class competition by using dubious stereotypes. That attracted a significant reaction from fans on social media, which forced O’Keeffe to eat the humble pie.
“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,” O’Keeffe said, reported News.com.au.
Mark Waugh also came under scanner for the comments about Ranji Trophy and said that averaging 50 with the bat in the subcontinent was like averaging 40 in Australia. He, however, stood by his comments and clarified that on Twitter.
All I said was averaging 50 in first class cricket in India is equivalent to averaging 40 in Aust mainly because of the number of players who achieve that. For the record Agarwal played very well in his 1st test innings.
— Mark Waugh (@juniorwaugh349) December 26, 2018
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