The South African squad arrived for their warm-up games of the ICC World Cup 2023 at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The Proteas' first game against Afghanistan was rained out on September 29. Now they'll play New Zealand in their second warm-up match on October 2.
The Temba Bavuma-led side will open their World Cup 2023 campaign against Sri Lanka on October 7 in Delhi.
Meanwhile, MP Shashi Tharoor, who is a MP from Thiruvananthapuram, shared a video in which the South African cricket team fumbled to pronounce the name of the city. Only a handful of Proteas players managed to get the pronunciation correct.
The likes of Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj were the ones who got it correct, while David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen, and other players failed despite trying their best.
“The South Africans have arrived in Thiruvananthapuram! But can they tell anyone where they are?” Tharoor posted.
Thiruvananthapuram was the original name of Kerala's capital while Trivandrum was the anglicized version of it. Thiruvananthapuram was officially brought back in place of Trivandrum in 1991.
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As a social media user pointed out that this might be the case with even Indians who are not from Kerala, Tharoor agreed and said Ananthapuri might have been an easy option.
" They don’t do any better. I’ve listened in horror to distinguished actors stumble over the name at the annual International Film Festival of Kerala. Very few of them manage to pronounce Thiruvananthapuram. We should have opted for Ananthapuri!," Tharoor wrote.
