On the fourth day, after apologizing once for his dig at Agarwal, O’Keeffe irritated Indian fans once again. O’Keeffe was receiving some criticism from his fellow commentators for struggling to pronounce some of the India players’ names, when he stated this: “Why would you name your child Cheteshwar Jadeja?” mixing up the two names he had been having difficulty with and using a slight accent to pronounce them. This was accompanied by loud chuckles from the rest of the commentary box.
Both comments led to significant backlash from Indian fans against O’Keeffe, a former Australia leg-spinner who played 24 Tests in the 1970s.
At the conclusion of the Test match, O’Keeffe penned his open letter on foxsports.com.au, expressing that he was “shocked” by the response to his comments.
“I am grappling with how adversely those words have been understood,” O’Keeffe stated. “That understanding is not who I am. It is not my essence. My approach as a commentator is to try to find an offbeat perspective to lighten up some of the serious analysis. When I made a comment about Indian first-class batting averages within their domestic cricket competition being made against a ‘canteen’ bowling attack, I was being entirely tongue in cheek. I was certainly not disrespecting Indian cricket, where I toured as a schoolboy and for which I have the utmost admiration as a cricketing nation.
“I accept that some fans may not always relate to my sense of humor – but missing the point of a joke between overs is vastly different to what I’ve been accused of on Twitter and in some sections of the media in recent days. I pride myself on doing thorough research before a match and when I stumbled over the names of Pujara and Jadeja on Day Four, I took a jab at myself for getting them wrong.
“There was no intent to mock those two exceptional players and I am appalled by any insinuation to the contrary. I had spent months researching and analyzing these two players and when the moment arrived, I messed it up. The joke was on me.”
“Yes, it does hurt you but when people make those remarks, there is nothing you can do about it,” Arun stated at the end of the fourth day’s play. “It’s beyond your control. If you can channelise that hurt towards doing better on the field that answers all the questions.”
The team management, Arun mentioned, was not planning to file an official complaint about O’Keeffe’s comment. At that time, however, the team was unaware of the “Cheteshwar Jadeja” remark.
*December 30, GMT 0440 The story was updated to reflect the publication of O’Keeffe’s open letter.
