Sanjay Manjrekar Regrets On-Air Quarrel With Harsha Bhogle

Sanjay Manjrekar was on the receiving end of trolls and abuses for his rude and arrogant behaviour towards a senior Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle back in November. This type of behaviour from a professional commentator like Sanjay Manjrekar was totally unacceptable by any means.

Sanjay Manjrekar’s on-air quarrel with Harsha Bhogle was one of the subjects of the Pink Ball Test after a video clip of the two commentators engaged in an unhealthy argument on air spread like wildfire during Day 3 of the Test match between India and Bangladesh.

Now, the Indian commentator Manjrekar had admitted that it was indeed wrong of him to make those unprofessional remarks and he straight away apologised to the producers after that incident.

“With that particular comment, it was me losing control and I was unprofessional, I was wrong. It is something that I regret, it was wrong of me so that is what really bothers me that I let my emotions get the better of me.

“So mostly being unprofessional and to an extent indecent as well. First thing that I did was apologise to the producers because I was wrong.

“People who have read my book know that I have actually made a plea for production companies to have good commentators doesn’t matter whether they have played cricket or not,” Indian commentator Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo’s videocast.

Sanjay Manjrekar’s on-air spat with Harsha Bhogle

During the game, Harsha Bhogle had suggested that a post-mortem needs to be done of India’s historic Pink ball Test and players should be asked for their views on the pink ball’s visibility. Nonetheless, Sanjay Manjrekar suggested there was no problem with the visibility of the ball and he knows it because of the fact that he has played international cricket, unlike commentator Harsha Bhogle.

“Well there is a post-mortem done on this game and there should be a post mortem on this game. Visibility of that ball will be a big factor against the big white sight-screen,” Bhogle added in a statement.

“Don’t think so. Because when you see the slip catchers the way they have taken catches, I don’t think visibility is an issue at all. The texture of the ball is the issue,” replied Manjrekar.

“We just need to ask the players what they think,” replied Harsha Bhogle.

On this, Sanjay Manjrekar took a swipe at Harsha Bhogle, saying, “You need to ask, for those who have played cricket, it’s evident it can be seen well.”

However, Harsha Bhogle refused to change his mind in his argument and then countered Sanjay Manjrekar. “The only reason you need to ask is, having played cricket should never be a limitation or a ceiling to learning. We would never have had T20 cricket otherwise,” said Harsha Bhogle who was the first Indian commentator to be invited by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for an overseas tour in the year 1992.

The spat, however, came to a close with Sanjay Manjrekar’s final statement. “Point taken, don’t agree,” said Manjrekar who has played 37 Tests for India between 1987 and 1996.

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