Reports: BCCI removes Sanjay Manjrekar from its commentary team

The international cricket community is in complete chaos after the COVID-19 aka Coronavirus outbreak, with players being moved into isolation, fans being tested positive for the virus, tournaments getting canceled and what not. And, amidst all of this, the news of Sanjay Manjrekar being removed from the BCCI commentary team went completely unnoticed.

The 54-year-old cricketer played 111 international matches for India and has been active as a commentator all through the years after he left the game in 1996. He has covered World Cups and many other ICC tournaments and is a mainstay in the commentary teams covering multi-nation cricket tournaments.

‘Maybe he will be left out from the IPL panel too’: Sources

But, as per Mumbai Mirror’s report, he has been left out of the BCCI commentary team and will not be a part of the commentary team for the upcoming Indian Premier League, as and when it starts. “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,” a source was quoted saying in the report.

Manjrekar has been through his share of controversies which involved the like of Harsha Bhogle and Ravindra Jadeja, and it might also have had a negative effect on his case. He was not spotted anywhere in the washed-out match at Dharamshala on the 12th of March and this adds more weight to the fact that he is indeed no more a part of the BCCI panel of commentators.

Sanjay Manjrekar all through his commentary career has seldom seen criticism, apart from the recent events, where he himself came out and apologized for his doings, and this sudden removal of his brings in a lot of questions along. Like what exactly went down between him and the Board and who was it who took the call to remove him.

While these questions remain unanswered, it is sure that he is no longer a part of the commentary team and it will be interesting to see what answer surfaces to the plethora of questions that are floating around at this moment.