‘Watermelon boy’: Australian boy becomes viral hit after attempting to eat entire watermelon at cricket match
Mitchell Schibeci said he’d seen people do ‘weird stuff’ to get on the big screen and thought he’d try his own stunt
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.An Australian boy has shot to fame after being caught eating the best part of a whole watermelon – including the skin – at a cricket match, earning himself the name ‘Watermelon boy’.
Mitchell Schibeci was spotted eating the watermelon by commentators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday during the Women’s Big Bash match.
He was nearly halfway through the watermelon when he appeared on the cricket ground's big screen and was seen biting off a huge chunk of the fruit’s rind.
#WatermelonBoy spotted at #WBBL01! pic.twitter.com/qBDrMiambE
— TEN Sport (@tensporttv) January 2, 2016
“I’ve never seen that before in my life,” one of the commentators said as the camera focused on Mitchell, with another asking: “Is he eating the skin?”
Ten-year-old Mitchell quickly became an internet sensation as the hashtag #watermelonboy began trending on Twitter in Australia, and he was invited onto Australian news programmes to share his story.
Mitchell told the BBC he has been eating watermelon rind since the age of two: “I’ve been doing it for a long time – I just like the taste of it,” he said.
But despite his penchant for eating the fruit’s skin, when Mitchell appeared on Channel 9’s Today programme he admitted to deciding to eat the watermelon in such a remarkable way in order to get noticed.
He told the show: “I’ve seen people do weird stuff and they got on the big screen so I thought I might do it myself.”
Father Tony Schibeci said Mitchell was handling his new-found fame well: “He’s really level headed about it and he knows it’s not something that’s going to propel him into stardom or anything, he’s just taking it as his 15 minutes of fame,” he told the Courier Mail.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments