Sanjay Manjrekar talks about 2019, looks back to Ravindra Jadeja, Harsha Bhogle ordeals

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has tagged 2019 as the worst year for him. He talked about his war of words with Ravindra Jadeja during the ICC World Cup 2019 and also about the ‘unprofessional and indecent’ statement he made about commentator Harsha Bhogle.

“I started this profession in 1997-1998, so it’s been about 20-21 years. It’s been the worst year for me as analyst and a commentator,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

He also shed light on what he spoke about Jadeja was indeed what the all rounder had heard and reacted to. However, Manjrekar also went on to say that he doesn’t feel apologetic about calling Jadeja bits and pieces cricketer as it was a frequently used expression in cricket.

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Jadeja took to his official twitter handle to respond to Manjrekar, “Still I have played twice the number of matches you have played and I’m still playing. Learn to respect people who have achieved. I have heard enough of your verbal diarrhoea Sanjay Manjrekar.”

In November when team India faced Bangladesh in a historic day night Test series, Manjrekar stirred another controversy when he got involved in a varbal spat with Harsha Bhogle over the visibility of the pink ball used in India’s first ever day-night Test.

While commentating, Bhogle had suggested that they needed to do a proper evaluation after the pink ball Test, asking the players if there were complications vis-a-vis visibility. Replying to this, Manjrekar said “only you need to ask, Harsha, not us, who have played a fair bit of the game.”

“I want to get very serious about this,” he said. “See, one thing I pride myself on is being professional and with that particular comment, it was me losing control and I was unprofessional, I was wrong and something that I regret... it was wrong of me. That is what really bothers me that I let my emotions get the better of me. Mostly being unprofessional and to an extent indecent as well.”

“It was wrong and I say that because it was unprofessional and the first thing that I did was I had apologised to the producer that I was working for that it was wrong,” he added.

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