The Indian crowd began booing umpire Richard Kettleborough who officiated the final of the World Cup between Australia and hosts India on Sunday.
Australia made another record after winning their sixth ODI World Cup at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Opening batter Travis Head led Australia’s chase by hitting 137 as they chased down the 241-target set by India.
Indian cricket fans consider Kettleborough a “bad omen” for India in knockout games and claims that he brings bad luck to their cricket team.
Andleeb Akhtar, an Indian cricket fan, said that the umpire was present on field or was TV umpire in India’s eight out of 10 knockout games that the team lost.
“Since 2013, India has lost 10 ICC Touranments and 8/10 times ‘Richard kettleborough’ was on field or TV umpire,” he wrote on X.
Pranay Shetty requested the International Cricket Council to not let Kettleborough officiate in India’s knockout matches as “he is very bad omen for the men in blue.”
“@ICC it’s an honest request by an true Indian team fan please don’t keep Richard Kettleborough umpire in knockout matches he is very bad omen for the men in blue. Please sir we have been broken for the last 10 years after CT 2013 we lost 8 matches in presence,” he wrote in a post on X.
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Another Indian commentator said that the World Cup final has proven that the umpire is a bad omen for the Indian cricket team in ICC knockouts.
“Before today, I thought that the Richard Kettleborough hoopla was just a coincidence,” he wrote.
Praveen Kumar Yadav called for a ban on Kettleborough in India’s knockout games.
“@BCCI Please ban umpire Richard kettleborough for all India nockout matches in future @ICC. One of the greatest Panauti of all time,” he wrote.
Vishnu Tiwari also noted the Indian crowd booing the ICC umpire as soon as his name was announced to receive his medal.
“Crowd started booing as soon as Richard Kettleborough’s name announced,” he wrote.
Yash called it silly of the Indian fans to boo the umpire.
“The crowd booing Richard Kettleborough is so silly like he gave your team a free wicket of Smith to put Australia under pressure,” he wrote.
