Former India cricketer and prolific commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has been left out of the commentary panel by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, reported Mumbai Mirror on Saturday.
The report mentioned that Manjrekar was not present in Dharamsala for the first One-Day International between India and South Africa on Thursday. The match was called off without a ball being bowled due to incessant rains.
The Indian cricket community is currently dealing with the outbreak of coronavirus, as the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation second and third matches in the series, which were to be held in Lucknow and Kolkata.
The Indian Premier League, which was supposed to start on 29 March, has also been suspended for a couple of weeks till 15 April.
“Maybe he will be left out from the IPL panel too. At this stage, it is not on top of our mind. But the fact is they are not happy with his work,” the report quotes a BCCI source as saying, adding that the cricketer was not available for a response.
With no cricket to broadcast anytime to soon, it is unclear how long Manjrekar’s absence from air is supposed to last.
The Mumbaikar had a controversy-filled 2019 in the commentary box. First, there was the spat with Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja during the World Cup, over his bits-and-pieces remark. Later in the year, he was involved in an on-air argument with fellow commentator Harsha Bhogle during the pink-ball Test for which Manjrekar apologised later.
‘’Of course. It was wrong and I say that because it was unprofessional and the first thing that I did was I had apologized to the producer that I was working for that it was wrong’’, Manjrekar had said, adding it was his worst year as a commentator.
Ahead of the now-cancelled India-South Africa series, Manjrekar had been doing analysis for popular cricket website ESPNCricinfo while also being a part of the Road Safety World Series broadcast team.