Sony Sports reinstate Sanjay Manjrekar in the commentary panel for Australia tour

Sanjay Manjrekar, the former Indian cricketer, is all geared up to make his return to the commentary box during India’s tour of Australia, starting November 27. The veteran was earlier removed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). On quite a few instances, Manjrekar faced the wrath of the netizens for his stern words.

However, in the 22-man commentary panel for India’s full-fledged tour, Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN), on Thursday, included his name. India’s campaign starts on the coming Friday with the ODI series followed by the T20I series. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is scheduled to get underway on December 17. The Indian players are currently in Sydney quarantining and training after reaching last Thursday.

A chance for Sanjay Manjrekar to make a strong comeback

As far as Manjrekar is concerned, he found himself in a controversy after he called Ravindra Jadeja a ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer during the 2019 World Cup. Thereafter, during India’s maiden Day-Night Test against Bangladesh in November at the Eden Gardens, he had an ugly spat with Harsha Bhogle. Subsequently, the Indian fans called for his removal from the commentary panel.

Manjrekar will now be keen to make amends in his upcoming stint. In the meantime, it’s pertinent to note that the legendary Sunil Gavaskar wasn’t included in the list of commentators. Arjun Pandit and Harsha Bhogle were roped in as the official presenters. Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag, the members of India’s 2011 World Cup-winning team, were also included.

Here’s the list of commentators 

English & Hindi: Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Harsha Bhogle, Murali Kartik, Ajay Jadeja

Hindi: Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif, Vijay Dahiya, Vivek Razdan, Zaheer Khan

English: Glenn McGrath and Nick Knight

Telugu: RJ Hemant, Vijay Mahavadi, Gnaneshwar Rao, C Venkatesh, Illendula Ramprasad

Tamil: T Arasu, Sheshadri Srinivasan, Vidhyut Sivaramakrishna, R Sathish, Naveen Shaur

To all the people who commented asking for the commentary panel 🗣️
HERE YOU GO 🤩

Watch 🇮🇳 tour of 🇦🇺 starting 27th November, 8 AM onwards 🗓️
📺 Sony SIX, Sony TEN 1, Sony TEN 3#CricketKaAsliRang #CricketWithoutBoundaries #AUSvIND #SonySports #SirfSonyParDikhega #India pic.twitter.com/UYKssqbUs6

— Sony Sports (@SonySportsIndia) November 19, 2020

Back in 2017-18, Cricket Australia penned down a deal with Sony Pictures Sports Network for six years. As per the contract, all the live cricket matches in Australia will be broadcasted on Sony and live-streamed on Sony LIV. Sony had even broadcasted India’s previous tour Down Under in 2018-19.