Shane Warne earns the wrath of fans for reference to Cheteshwar Pujara’s ‘Steve’ nickname.

Byline by- Vinayak Heliwal

Legendary leg Spinner Shane Warne finds himself in another controversy after he referred to one of Cheteshwar Pujara’s nicknames ‘Steve’ coined by his former Yorkshire teammates during Day 1 of the ongoing pink ball test in Adelaide.

On air with Fox Cricket during the first session, Warne said that Pujara was called ‘ Steve ‘ by his Yorkshire teammates during the batsman county stint as his first name Cheteshwar was hard to pronounce.

Shane Warne seemed to have missed the fact that the issue is in the news and certainly not a joke anymore.

The matter of Pujara being referred to as ‘Steve’s a controversial one. On December 5, former Yorkshire captain Azeem Rafiq had filed a legal complaint against the team for discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race. The charges are under investigation with Pujara stint at the club also having been mentioned as evidence by former employees.

While giving evidence to back Rafiq’s claims, a former Yorkshire employee Taj Butt had alleged that Yorkshire players called ‘every player of color’ Steve. Notably, Butt resigned from his job as a community development officer at the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation within 6 weeks of joining.

They called every person of color ‘Steve’. Even Cheteshwar Pujara, who joined as an overseas professional, was called Steve because they could not pronounce his name.”Butt said.

Check out the reactions-

India’s captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat in the opening day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide on Thursday. Indians openers Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal departed in the first session but Pujara and Kohli put on a show of resistance then onwards