New Delhi: Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes that 2019 was the “worst year” for him as a analyst and a commentator, referring to his spat with Ravindra Jadeja during the World Cup and after that the “unprofessional and indecent” comment he made about celebrated commentator Harsha Bhogle.
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Before the semi-final clash against New Zealand in July, Manjrekar had called Jadeja a “bits and pieces player” and had excluded him from his playing XI against the Kiwis for which he was trolled heavily on the social media.
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“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 in a video interview.
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The 54-year-old also revealed he never met Jadeja after that incident because there was “no misunderstanding”.
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“There was no misunderstanding here, I said exactly what Jadeja heard.”
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He further said that he doesn’t regret the words he used for Jadeja as according to him ‘bits and pieces player’ is a “commonly used cricketing term”.
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Reacting to Manjrekar’s comment, Jadeja too had tweeted back: “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 diarrhea Sanjay Manjrekar.”
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Later in November, Manjrekar once again found himself at the receiving end after he got into a minor verbal spat with Bhogle over the visibility of the pink ball used in India’s maiden Day-Night Test against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
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While doing commentary, 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.
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To which, Manjrekar responded with “only you need to ask, Harsha, not us, who have played a fair bit of the game.”
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However, now the veteran of 37 Tests and 74 ODIs regrets making those comments and believes it was “unprofessional” of him as he let his emotions get the better of him.
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“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.”
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“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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