Possible reasons for BCCI sacking Sanjay Manjrekar from the commentators' panel

Sanjay Manjrekar, the Indian commentator had to face the heat of the cricket fans due to his controversial statements in the recent past. He hogged the spotlight on numerous occasions just because of his vocal nature. He was sacked from the commentary panel by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) ahead of the South Africa ODI series that got postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak.

In 2019 during a Test match in Nagpur, the 54-year-old was involved in an on-air spat with his colleague Harsha Bhogle as Manjrekar took a jibe at the latter not playing cricket. There was an instance during the 2019 World Cup when he quoted Ravindra Jadeja as ‘bits and pieces’ player due to which Manjrekar received harsh treatment from the fans on social media even as the cricketer himself slammed him for his comments.

The fans thought that these instances might have piled up pressure on BCCI due to which they sidelined Sanjay Manjrekar from the panel.

Manjrekar was vocal about Ganguly’s conflict of interest issue in 2019

But if a report in Sportskeeda is to be believed, the main reason for Sanjay Manjrekar’s sacking is different. There were a few reports that he didn’t follow BCCI’s guidelines and that could be one of the reasons for the same. A source hinted that Manjrekar was vocal last year about Sourav Ganguly’s conflict of interest issue.

Ganguly was the President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and mentor of the Delhi Capitals team at the same time. “Manjrekar was quite vocal last year when Ganguly was engulfed in the conflict of interest controversy. Back then the former Indian skipper had been holding multiple posts – including that of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president and mentor of the Delhi Capitals team,” the source said.

Contrary to that, the sources have also denied the fact that Ganguly is removing all the people associated with the board, who raise the voice against him. “All the claims are false that says Ganguly has been on a witch-hunt since becoming the BCCI boss, or that he has been pushing his detractors out of the board,” other source added.