A day after Australia broke the hearts of a billion Indians by winning their sixth World Cup title, the team got called out for being "arrogant" as a picture of Mitchell Marsh resting his feet on the trophy went viral on social media. The image, which showed Marsh sitting on a couch with the World Cup trophy beneath his legs, saw netizens hitting out at the all-rounder for being "disrespectful".
The picture seems to have been clicked inside the Australian team's hotel room after they thrashed India by six wickets in the finals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Marsh, however, did not have a good outing in the match and managed only 15 runs before falling to Jasprit Bumrah.
After reducing India to a paltry 240, Australia found their match winner in Travis Head, who combined patience with aggression to take the Kangaroos home by scoring a solid 137. He was ably supported by Marnus Labuschagne, who played second fiddle to Head after Australia were reduced to 47 for three at one stage.
As the image of Marsh went viral, several users castigated the all-rounder as well the Australian team for "lack of culture". "Show some respect to the World Cup trophy. Ask Indian fans or Team India about the value of this trophy ," a user said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Another user commented, "This is the cultural difference!! He is putting his legs on something that was kissed by the whole team and earned by the team’s hard work. We Indians will never do that."
"Typical arrogance of the Aussie cricket team. Shows lack of culture," a X user said while another posted, "So sad to see this behaviour from Mitchell Marsh with the World Cup Trophy which has got a huge respect".
One user, however, asked netizens not to indulge in moral policing. "No way people are ranting about this being disrespectful. Our culture is obviously different from theirs. Stop moral policing everywhere."
Check some of the reactions on X: