US president struggles with pronunciation while attending a rally with prime minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad.
The US president, Donald Trump, gave a special mention to cricket greats Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli during a visit to India on Monday – but it was probably the first time he had spoken their names.
In a speech during a rally with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad – the world’s largest cricket stadium – Trump incorrectly pronounced the name of India’s greatest ever player as “Soo-chin Tendul-Kerr”.
His unique rendering of the name was noted on social media. The US president almost scored with Kohli, whose first name came out as “V-rot”, slightly off “V-rut”.
Virat Kohli vs Sachin’s records: Is it possible to break the records?
Cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, jokingly asked on its Twitter account whether anyone knew if “Sooch-”, “Sutch-”, or other variations of Tendulkar’s first name were correct.
Something about Donald Trump's pronunciation of Sachin Tendulkar tells me he isn't a huge cricket fan pic.twitter.com/stFhq46MLx
— Andy Silke (@andysilke) February 24, 2020
Trump said the stadium was “where your people cheer on some of the world’s greatest cricket players from Sachin Tendulkar to Virat Kohli,” prompting a smile from Modi and applause from the crowd.
Trump also tripped over other words, including Ahmedabad (“Ahba-bard”) and the word for tea-seller – chaiwalla –, which he pronounced as “cheewalla”, and he himself chuckled at his attempt to pronounce the name of Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda (“Swami Vivekananda”).
Leave a Reply