Sanjay Manjrekar never attained the stature of a cricketing legend. With an average of 37.1 in 37 Tests and 33.2 in 74 One-dayers, he hardly qualified as one. But as a commentator he is on the way to claiming that status, not in the positive way though. His penchant for running down far bigger achievers than him and off-the-cuff offensive remarks on players are turning him into a legend of loose talk.
This often comes in the veil of frankness and no-nonsense approach, but the veil is falling apart, making his remarks more obnoxious than substantive. Once considered an astute thinker of the game and a genuine intellectual, Manjrekar is turning into more of a nuisance. Much of it has to do with his proclivity to overstate the point and override fellow commentators, besides delivering harsh opinions on players.
Remember when he called Ravindra Jadeja a ‘bits and pieces’ player who was a pure bowler in Test cricket but in 50-overs cricket neither a complete batsman nor a specialist bowler. The retort from Jadeja in the X (Twitter earlier) was sharp. “I have played twice the number of matches you have played and am still playing,” he posted, adding “Learn to respect people who have achieved. I have heard enough of your verbal diarrhoea.” Cricket lovers backed Jadeja on the social media.
In 2017, he said West Indian all-rounder and one of the key Mumbai Indians player Keiron Pollard did not have the brains to come up in the batting order. On Ravichandran Ashwin, he claimed that he didn’t fit into the all-time great category as his performance in SENA (South Africa, England New Zealand and Australia) countries was poor. Much earlier, in 2012, he wanted Virat Kohli to be dropped. “Just give him one more chance to be sure he doesn’t belong here [to be a Test player], he posted on X.
Reacting to Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir’s press conference before the beginning of the just concluded Australia series, he said Gambhir did not have the right demeanour to attend a press conference and should stay behind the scenes to manage the job at hand. “He does not have the right demeanour nor the words when interacting with the media. Rohit and Agarkar, much better guys to front up for the media,” his post said.
He must make his views heard and prevail in all matters and they are mostly caustic or unwarranted. If it’s not on X, it is in the commentary box. He is often seen in arguments with fellow commentators. He appears to be oblivious to the fact that there can be no absolutely correct view on situations open to interpretations. Take for instance when he and former cricketer Irfan Khan had a cross talk over the run out involving Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli on day two of the fourth Test of the just concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It looked rather unpleasant as two former cricketers exchanged words over who was at fault, Kohli or Jaiswal.
Is Manjrekar getting a bit desperate for attention? It’s a disease that has gone deep in the times of social media. Sober views and intelligent analysis are too unexciting. To stand out, one must have views that elicit a strong reaction, good or bad. Nastiness is a proven quick route to it. This, in his case, is spilling over to the commentating job. Sometime ago, actress Kangana Ranaut took the same path and her social media image completely overshadowed her reputation as a brilliant actress. Sanjay Manjrekar would do well not to be the Kangana of cricket.
(By arrangement with Perspective Bytes)
