By Jay Lokegaonkar

The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is entering its final week and it has been a tournament to remember. While the action on the field has, unsurprisingly, been staggering, the action off it, too, has been memorable. From a Pakistani fan’s memorable rant about his teams’ dietary habits to India’s 87-year old super fan, the stories off-the-field have lit up social media throughout the past month and a half.

But one off-the-field story that has gained traction like no other over the past six weeks has been former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar’s antics on the mic in the commentary booth. While his opinions have been the ire of a few Indian fans for a number of years, the past month has seen him become Public Enemy #1 on social media, with many even signing an online petition asking the broadcasters to relieve Manjrekar off his duties in the booth.

A history of garbage takes

It’s hard to pinpoint where the hate for Manjrekar commenced, but this tweet from 2012 would be a good start.

Since this tweet, Kohli has scored over 6,000 runs in test cricket, has been named in the ICC Test Team of the Year twice — as captain no less — and has won the ICC Test Player of the Year once. Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, is yet to solidify his place and has an average of under 40 in the longest format of the game. Sadly, for Manjrekar, this tweet crashed more horribly than the housing market did in 2008.

Laughable commentary

Sports commentators are supposed to be experts in the subject matter. Students of the game. Manjrekar’s cricket expertise is comparable to the proficiency of the people that ran the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Read | Sanjay Manjrekar doesn’t deserve criticism and here’s why…

Take the game between India and Afghanistan for example. Afghanistan needed 24 in the final three overs and India had two overs from Mohammad Shami and an over from Jasprit Bumrah in the bank. A casual cricket fan could have told you what combination India would use but Manjrekar, who was in the commentary booth alongside Rameez Raza, discussed the obvious as if it were some voodoo or rocket science.

Rameez Raza: “When should Virat bowl Bumrah? He has one over remaining.”

Sanjay Manjrekar: “I would bowl him the 49th over and knowing Virat he will do the same.”

You don’t need to be a Virat to have common sense, Sanjay. It’s not that complicated.

In one of the earlier games, he was of the opinion that batsmen with great pedigree in Tests are the ones that are dominating at the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Funnily enough, three of the top four scorers at that point in the tournament, were Shakib Al-Hasan, Aaron Finch and Rohit Sharma who have a Test average of 39.6, 27.8 and 39.6 respectively.

Unless you are a tailender, those are not really the numbers of a player with a foothold in the longest format of the game.

For guys like Manjrekar, a quote about commentary by the legendary Richie Benaud sounds just about right: “Put your brain into gear and if you can add to what’s on the screen then do it, otherwise shut up.”

Bias

While Manjrekar was born in Mangaluru, he played the majority of his domestic career for Bombay. And not just any Bombay side, he was part of some glorious Bombay Ranji team and played alongside the likes of Lalchand Rajput, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli just to name a few. He even captained Mumbai to a title in 1996-97, so it’s safe to assume that Manjrekar has a soft spot for the city and its players.

But there’s a thin line between having a soft spot and being biased and Manjrekar usually lives in the latter half when it comes to Mumbai players. He refrained from commenting about Rohit Sharma’s terrible IPL campaign with but he was quick to point out during the ICC Cricket World Cup that, “Virat is getting the 50 and 60s and Rohit Sharma is getting all the big 100s.” His mention of Kohli, who has smashed 41 ODI centuries, while praising Sharma irked social media, who argued that his bias was clear towards Sharma.

‘Verbal Diarrhoea’

As a commentator, it’s crucial to be constructive in your criticism of a player’s ability. But Manjrekar ain’t got any time for that. In 2017, he accused Keiron Pollard of “not having the brains to bat up the order”. Pollard was, well, not impressed by those comments. He went on a rant on twitter, lambasting Manjrekar for his verbal diarrhea.

You’d think Manjrekar would learn from this experience and be more vigilant about what he said about players… Well…

During the World Cup, he rubbed all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja the wrong way by calling him a “bits and pieces” ODI player, which is a terrible way to describe a player with 174 wickets and over 2000 runs in the 50-over game.

All in all, Manjrekar has become a controversial figure owing to his comments. His opinions have been universally questioned and has driven traffic away from television screens. While asking for him to be sacked would be an overreaction, Indians and fans across the world would like nothing more than for Manjrekar to be put in an air-conditioned room during the mid-inning breaks where no one would bother paying heed to his remarks…

OR he could just tone it down but that, if history is anything to go, is unlikely.

Feature image courtesy: Twitter/ @cricketworldcup

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World Cup 2019