"I Was Unprofessional, I Was Wrong," Sanjay Manjrekar Clarifies His On-Air Comments For Harsha Bhogle 1
Photo: BCCI/Getty

By his own admission, 2019 was the worst year for Sanjay Manjrekar as an analyst and commentator. Ravindra Jadeja hit back at the former cricketer for the bits and piece comment and to add to it, Manjrekar faced flak from the fans for questing Harsha Bhogle’s credentials as a cricketer, on the air.

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While the Jadeja controversy was done and dusted after World Cup, his comments on Bhogle came in November – during the historic pink-ball day-night Test between India and Bangladesh. The two commentators were discussing the game when Bhogle said that the visibility of the pink ball will be one of the things that will be discussed. Manjrekar, though, disagreed with it.

“You need to ask [the players about visibility] perhaps, [but] for us, those who have played the game, we have a fair idea of what’s happening out there,” Manjrekar had said then.

Clarifying his comment now, Manjrekar accepted that he was unprofessional on that occasion. “I want to get very serious about this. 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,” he told ESPNcricinfo.

The comments made by Manjrekar became the talk of the town and he was severely criticised for questioning Bhogle because he hadn’t played international or domestic cricket. He (Bhogle) has been voice of Indian cricket for long and is only non-cricketer (from India) who has been commentating on the game for almost 30 years now.

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Apart from commenting on this controversy, Manjrekar also had his say on his bits and pieces comment but said that there was no question of clarifying as he said what he meant. Manjrekar has hosted few presentation ceremonies but hasn’t got chance to interview Jadeja yet.