Former India batsman, Sanjay Manjrekar’s hopes of being reinstated as commentator for the upcoming IPL season have been dealt a blow. This is due to BCCI’s refusal to his proposal regarding reinstating him on the panel of shortlisted commentators for IPL 2020.
A report in the Mumbai Mirror states that the BCCI has approached the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, L Sivaramakrishnan, Murali Kartik, Harsha Bhogle and those from overseas through mail seeking their availability for the upcoming IPL. However, no such mail was sent to Manjrekar, all but closing the door on his return to commentary. The final call lies in the hands of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah.
Manjrekar had last Saturday written to the BCCI, requesting the board to reinstate him for commentary duties for the IPL 2020. Manjrekar, a renowned commentator since his retirement in 1996, was in March excluded from the BCCI’s panel of commentators ahead of India’s three ODI series against South Africa which got cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with the IPL set for a September 19 start, Manjrekar wrote that he will ‘stick to the guidelines laid out’ by the BCCI.
“Respected members of the Apex Council, hope you all keeping well. You are already in receipt of the email I sent to explain my position as commentator,” Manjrekar had written top the Apex Council members of the BCCI, a copy of which was leaked.
“With the IPL dates announced, bcci.tv will pick its commentary panel soon. I will be happy to work as per the guidelines laid by you. After all, we are working on what is essentially your production. Last time may be there was not enough clarity on this issue. Thanks very much, Regards.”
Manjrekar landed in hot waters for a couple of incidents last year. He created strong controversy by calling India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja a “bits-and-pieces” player during the 2019 World Cup, to which the India allrounder made a scathing remark on Twitter comparing Manjrekar’s commentary to verbal diarrhoea. Manjrekar had to later apologise for his remark after Jadeja’s fighting half-century nearly took India home in the semi-final.
“By bits ‘n’ pieces of sheer brilliance, he’s ripped me apart on all fronts,” he had said.
Once the Jadeja controversy cooled down, Manjrekar got involved in an on-air spat with Harsha Bhogle during India’s first ever Day/Night Test against Bangladesh in October. With the pink ball posing questions about its visibility, Bhogle had suggested that they needed to do a proper post-mortem after the pink ball Test, asking the players whether there were problems regarding visibility. Responding to this, Manjrekar responded: “Only you need to ask, Harsha, not us, who have played a fair bit of the game.”
Days later, Manjrekar apologised for the remark while conceding that 2019 was one of his worst years as an analyst.