“Cricket’s Viagra”: When Kerry O’Keeffe Titillated Joe Root’s Cover Drive

Former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe never fails to amaze audiences with his commentary. Be it on air or in front of the media, the 74-year-old always finds a way to make snazzy comments about cricketers. He did the same during an Ashes 2023 appearance for Fox Sports Australia drawing parallels between cricket and eroticism by comparing former England captain Joe Root‘s cover drive with viagra.

Australia had just won the first Test match after a nail-biting competition. O’Keeffe, being his usual jolly self, was praising Bazball, in particular, ahead of the second Test at the Lord’s.

Owing to his unbridled nature of saying things, O’Keeffe has also found himself in troubled waters previously. He was once severely criticized for invoking racism with his comments about veteran Indian batters namely Cheteswar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. This time, however, he had made a direct comparison between cricket and s*x.

“If Joe Root’s batting, it’s just, you know, It’s cricket’s Viagra [laughs]. When Travis Head plays a cover drive, I feel dirty, because his bottom hand takes over. When Joe Root cover drives, I talk dirty,” O’Keeefe told Fox Sports Australia.

For those who don’t know, O’Keeffe was discussing about Root and Australian batter Travis Head because the two had scored a century and half-century respectively at Edgbaston. Soon afterwards, the discussion proceeded former Australia captain Ricky Ponting trolling former England batter Kevin Pietersen for his incessant appreciation of Root.

Is The Cover Drive Of Joe Root Better Than Travis Head?

A cover drive is arguably the most elegant cricketing shot. If timed to perfection in the absence of a boundary rider, it is bound to fetch a boundary more often than not. Modern greats in Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Babar Azam often take refuge in the cover drive. Joe Root, one of them, is no different.

Having said that, it might not be entirely fair to compare Root and Head’s cover drives or even their playing style for that matter. Root, a far more classical player, relies on his sound technique mixed with the timing and placement. Picking the length of the ball after having spotted the gap beforehand, Root slowly moves his front leg and bat to the line of the ball and drives it for a four.

“The majority of it is just getting in a really strong position, getting your head nice and over your front foot and then making a good solid contact with the delivery,” Root once told Investec about his cover drive.

Head, on the other hand, has a different technique. He often stands his ground and drives the ball for a boundary, with power generated from his bottom hand. There is very minimal foot movement, and it’s almost as if he is pushing the ball towards the ropes with a fine blend of timing and power. He is also not afraid to hit the ball on the up. Such comparisons, however, are always subject to debate and different cricket enthusiasts have their favorite pick.

As per an ESPNcricinfo article from 2020, Root’s average while cover driving is astonishingly good at 83.64. His control percentage, meanwhile, is 87.1, even more than Kohli (86.3). Head has far fewer runs scored and less average with his cover drives, in comparison. Root fetches 13.8 % of his runs from cover drives, but it also accounts for 8.5 % of his dismissals.

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• Joe Root
• Kerry O'Keefe