Indian cricket team along with Bangladesh made history in Kolkata with the pink ball test. While India registered a thumping victory over Bangladesh, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjerekar found himself in the puddle after an on-air banter with Harsha Bhogle in the commentary box.
The on-air banter between the Harsha and Manjerekar started when both the players were commenting on the visibility of the pink ball. Bhogle was of the thought that Indian players should be asked about their views on the visibility of the ball in order to get a clear picture on the matter.
However, the discussion turned ugly when Manjrekar tried to woo-off Bhogle’s comment saying that he knew things well and needed no opinions from players as he has been an international cricketer himself.
Bhogle said, “When there is a post-mortem done of this, the visibility of the ball will be one of the things to look at.” Manjrekar who was doing the commentary with Bhogle believed that visibility is not an issue as he said
“Don’t think so. Don’t think visibility is an issue.”
Bhogle who was still not ready to accept this stood his ground and added,
“We just need to ask the players what they think”. To which Manjrekar lost his cool and told Bhogle,
“You need to ask perhaps, for us, those who have played the game, we have a fair idea of what’s happening out there.”
The incident has spread like fire in the wild, and ever since, Majrekar has been subjecting to backlash on social media. Things look bad for Manjrekar as not only the fans but even some of the experts of the game criticised Manjrekar for his arrogance on air. Manjrekar has become the talk of the town and even commentators in the domestic tournaments have started to take a jibe at the former India cricketer.
In a recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game between Delhi and Haryana, Mumbai’s domestic cricket star Amol Muzumdar, who was doing commentary for the match, took a dig at Manjrekar. Majumdar was asked by his on air partner on what he felt about Rishabh Pant facing and adjusting to slow pacers in the tournament when he was used to facing quick pace of Indian bowlers in the nets of the Indian team. To this Amol Muzumdar cheekily said,
“How will I know? I have never played at that level.”
Majrekar had earlier landed in trouble after he had termed Ravindra Jadeja as a bits and pieces player when asked about Jadeja’s possible inclusion in the playing eleven after India’s loss to England at the ICC World Cup. The former India player had to face a lot of criticism after this as Jadeja went on to say that he had had enough of Manjrekar’s verbal diarrhoea. Jadeja had also replied to Manjrekar’s comment with his performance in the semi-final match against New Zealand.
