Kerry O'Keeffe

Kerry James O'Keeffe (born 25 November 1949) is a former Australian cricketer and a current cricket commentator for Fox Sports. O'Keeffe played 24 Test matches and two One Day Internationals between 1971 and 1977.

Kerry O'Keeffe
Personal information
Full name
Kerry James O'Keeffe
Born (1949-11-25) 25 November 1949
Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia
NicknameSkull[1]
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm leg spin
RoleAll rounder
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 253)21 January 1971 v England
Last Test28 July 1977 v England
ODI debut (cap 34)2 June 1977 v England
Last ODI6 June 1977 v England
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1968/69–1979/80New South Wales
1971–1972Somerset
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 24 2 169 39
Runs scored 644 16 4,169 305
Batting average 25.76 16.00 26.05 15.25
100s/50s 0/1 0/0 0/13 0/0
Top score 85 16* 99* 35
Balls bowled 5384 132 31,052 1,431
Wickets 53 2 476 27
Bowling average 38.07 39.50 28.11 32.70
5 wickets in innings 1 0 24 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 5 0
Best bowling 5/101 1/36 7/38 3/16
Catches/stumpings 15/– 0/– 112/– 7/–
Source: Cricinfo, 10 November 2012

Playing career

He was a spin bowler, bowling leg breaks. He never quite lived up to early expectations of being the next great Australian leg spin bowler, taking 53 wickets at an average of 38.07. He made his Test debut against England in the Fifth Test of the 1970–71 Ashes series after taking 6/69 and hitting 55 not out in the New South Wales match against the tourists, but did little and was dropped. Recalled for the vital Seventh Test on the spinning SCG pitch he took 3/48 and 3/96, but it was not enough to win the game and save The Ashes. He did, however, have some success with the bat, averaging 25.76 and being called upon to open the batting in the second innings of the Centenary Test. One statistic that O'Keeffe himself uses to demonstrate his lack of penetration with the ball is that he is the bowler with the highest percentage of wickets out 'caught' in the history of Test match cricket (44 out of 53 wickets, 84%).[2] This is typical of his commentating style of making fun of his bowling abilities. He often talks of an incident during the 1972 Australian tour of England, when he appealed against a batsman for leg before wicket, and the umpire turned him down, saying that the ball was "doing too much", meaning that the ball was spinning so much that it would have turned away from the stumps. O'Keeffe said that the umpire's comment was a sarcastic jibe at his inability to spin the ball, something he likes to mock himself about.

Post-playing career

O'Keeffe had varied careers post-cricket including as a commentator on ABC Radio. He was known for his humorous anecdotes, told in the manner of an after-dinner speech at a cricketers club, and his distinctive laugh. He especially seemed to enjoy working with overseas commentators such as India's Harsha Bhogle, whom he enjoyed confusing with his colorful Australian language. However, when he concentrated on the game, he showed insight born of a career at the highest level together with study of the statistics and history of the game.

In 2004, he released his autobiography According to Skull. He has also released a number of CDs containing some shorts of his commentating antics.

On 27 December 2013, while providing commentary on the Melbourne Boxing Day Test between Australia and England, O'Keeffe announced his retirement from commentating after the Sydney Test in January 2014 (O'Keeffe had accepted a redundancy from the ABC).[3] However, O'Keeffe returned to cricket commentary in December 2016 as part of Triple M's new cricket coverage.

On 13 July 2018, it was announced that O'Keeffe had joined the Fox Sports cricket commentary team from the 2018–19 season.[4] O'Keeffe's commentary during the Indian tour of Australia in 2018 received backlash from the Indian team management and on social media for being derogatory towards Indian players.[5][6][7] A day before the fourth Test, it was reported that Indian broadcaster Sony had decided to black out O'Keeffe's commentary by not using Fox Cricket's commentary feed when he is on air.[8][9]

References
  1. "Kerry O'Keeffe". MN2S. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  2. "Kerry J O'Keeffe (Australia) - How Wickets Obtained (Test Cricket)". Howstat Computing Services. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  3. "Kerry O'Keeffe retires from ABC Grandstand commentary team". ABC News. 27 December 2013. Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  4. "Brett Lee and Kerry O'Keeffe added to Fox Sports' all-star cricket crew". Fox Sports. 13 July 2018. Archived from the original on 13 July 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  5. Monga, Sidharth (29 December 2018). "India furious over Kerry O'Keeffe's 'Railways Canteen Staff XI' jibe". ESPN. Archived from the original on 29 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  6. "Offensive Aussie commentary hurts but nothing we can do about it: India bowling coach". India Today. 29 December 2019. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  7. "After Mayank Agarwal, Kerry O'Keefe now makes fun of Cheteshwar Pujara- Twitter calls out Aussie commentator". DNA. 29 December 2018. Archived from the original on 29 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  8. Tagore, Vijay (2 January 2019). "Kerry O'Keeffe's commentary to be blacked out in India". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the original on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  9. "After controversy, Sony opts to black out Kerry O'Keeffe's commentary in Sydney Test". Deccan Chronicle. 3 January 2019. Archived from the original on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
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