Indian commentators are often in the news for reasons beyond their expert comments. Be it Ravi Shastri's spat with Nasser Hussain during India's 2011 tour of India or the several meltdowns that Sunil Gavaskar has had over the years on-air.
One man who seems to attract more negative attention than others is Sanjay Manjrekar. For some reason, he draws a lot of flak from sections of Indian cricket viewing public and also earned a strong rebuke from Ravindra Jadeja for calling him 'bits and pieces player' during the World Cup.
Now, Manjrekar finds himself in the throes of another controversy. During the third day of the second Test between India and Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, which turned out to be the last, the former India batsman got into what seemed like a heated argument with Harsha Bhogle over the visibility of the pink ball.
Listen to the interaction between the two down below:
Harsha bhogle and Sanjay manjrekar having a difference of opinion on live tv pic.twitter.com/0TTSLQDCvO
— Vijay (@flighted_leggie) November 24, 2019
This is very surprising because Bhogle and Manjrekar have been colleagues as commentators for a long time and have often seemed good-humoured while discussing important issues. For both men to suddenly become little indignant towards each other seems very surprising.
The discussion started with Bhogle saying that the visibility of the pink ball in this Test match should be discussed with the batsmen who played in it. Manjrekar responded curtly by saying that he doesn't think there is an issue with sighting the ball. When Bhogle insisted on his point that batsmen who played in this game need to be asked whether they saw the ball clearly, Manjrekar gave a reply which seems a little rude.
"You need to ask (the batsmen about the visibility of the ball). For those who have played cricket, it's evident that it (ball) can be seen well," the former India cricketer asserted and went on to buttress his point.
In his own way, Bhogle said that there is no end to learning and Manjrekar tried to end the conversation by saying "Point taken but don't agree." Bhogle then tried to calm down the temperature by adding: "That's how it should be."
