Kerry O'Keefe's voice blacked out by Indian broadcaster. | Photo Credit: Twitter

Controversial Australian commentator Kerry O’Keeffe has reportedly been blacked out by Indian broadcaster Sony for the fourth Test between India and Australia in Sydney. It has been reported by media outlets that the broadcaster has decided to not air the Australian’s commentary on its channel after receiving several complaints. O’Keeffe had made controversial remarks regarding the Indian batsmen during the Border-Gavaskar trophy. He had said that Mayank Agarwal’s triple century in the Ranji Trophy had come against Railways “canteen staff” which comprised of “chefs and waiters.”

He was at it again; when he commented that why would you name your child “Cheteshwar Jadeja”. He faced some major backlash on social media for the comments, with some suggesting that it had racial undertones. O’Keeffe deleted his Twitter account after the gaffe and admitted he was hurt by the reaction in India.

Sony Pictures Networks has a deal with Fox Cricket where it uses 30 minutes of their commentary in an hour. O’Keeffe is part of the commentary team for Fox Cricket in Australia. Sony is using a combination of its own studio commentary based in Mumbai and the feed from Australia. It has been reported by Mumbai Mirror that BCCI has nothing to do in the matter.

O’Keeffe had issued an open letter to apologise and clarify to all the fans for his comments. He had said that he had immense admiration for India and was just making a tongue in cheek remark.

“When I made a remark 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 greatest admiration as a cricketing nation,” he wrote in his open letter for foxsports.com.au.

“There was no intention to ridicule those two wonderful players and I am horrified by any suggestion to the contrary. I had spent months researching and analysing these two players and when the moment arrived, I stuffed it up. The joke was on me,” Keeffe added, trying to bring an end to the matter.