Sanjay Manjrekar admitted that 2019 has been the "worst year" for him as an analyst and commentator, referring to his controversial "bits and pieces" remark aimed at Ravindra Jadeja and later, his on-air spat with Harsha Bhogle.
'It's been the worst year for me as analyst and commentator'
A candid @sanjaymanjrekar explains why it was a terrible 2019 for him 😉 pic.twitter.com/CAt3RRzX16
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) December 30, 2019
Opening up on his controversy with Jadeja for the first time, Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo that a lot of people have used the same words for Jadeja and his knock against the Kiwis in the World Cup was indeed special.
"The thing is I gave an interview to a random news channel and that line got picked up. The player was upset. Bits and pieces was something lot of people used. When I say it was a terrible year for me, I gave that comment and very next day Jadeja, in that semi-final, played an absolute blinder of an innings. The kind of innings we have never seen from him," Manjrekar said.
Taking on Manjrekar for his comment, Jadeja blasted the former cricketer on Twitter and said he deserves respect because he has played twice the number of matches than Manjrekar. Later, the all-rounder played a heroic knock of 77 in the World Cup semi-final match against New Zealand, which India lost by 18 runs.
After the Jadeja controversy was done and dusted, Manjrekar once again courted controversy when he had a spat with fellow commentator Harsha Bhogle during India's pink ball day-night Test against Bangladesh. While talking about the game, Bhogle spoke about the visibility of the pink ball and said that it needed to be discussed with the players. In reply, Manjrekar pointed towards his experience as a former cricketer and downplayed Bhogle's comments.
“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.
Regretting the incident, Manjrekar told to ESPNCricinfo that he was unprofessional at that moment and apologised for it.
“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 said.
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