A viral picture of Mitchell Marsh made the rounds over social media after Australia’s World Cup final win, showing Marsh posing with the silverware under his feet.

Marsh scored 441 runs at an average and a strike rate of 49 and 107.56 respectively in the competition, and was his side’s third-highest run scorer. However, his celebration didn’t go down well with some fans. Several online commenters accused Marsh of being disrespectful towards the game by placing his feet on the trophy.

The major uproar created in India by Mitchell Marsh’s photo has its origins in Brahmanism where Brahmin emerged from Lord’s head and Shudra from his feet.

Touching something with your feet is not ‘impure’ or disrespectful once you get rid of this brahmanical lens. pic.twitter.com/elvFC2TjDu

— Siddharth (@DearthOfSid) November 20, 2023

Shami has also chimed in to criticise Marsh for his pose. While answering questions from reporters, Shami expressed his disappointment over the photo.

“I am hurt,” he said, speaking to a group of reporters on Friday, November 24. “The trophy for which all the teams in the world fight, the trophy which you want to lift over your head, keeping a foot on that trophy did not make me happy.”

With 24 wickets from seven matches at a stunning average of just 10.70, Shami was instrumental in India’s campaign. After warming the bench in the first four matches, an ankle injury to Hardik Pandya made way for him to break into the side. Following his inclusion he took three five-wicket-hauls in the tournament, and claimed the best figures ever by an India bowler in men’s ODIs against New Zealand in the semi-final, taking 7-57.

Shami finished the tournament as its highest wicket-taker and became the bowler with the most five-fors (four) in its history.