Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, according to a report in the Mumbai Mirror, has been sacked from the BCCI’s panel of commentators.
A regular feature in the commentary box during India matches (home or away), Manjrekar is set to be left out of the commentary panel for the IPL 2020, which has been suspended till April 15 amid coronavirus threat.
Manjrekar was not present in Dharamsala for the first ODI between India and South Africa, which was abandoned due to rain on Thursday (March 12).
However, the other BCCI panel commentators Sunil Gavaskar, L Sivaramakrishnan and Murali Kartik were present reported the Mumbai Mirror.
The Indian cricket community is currently dealing with the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, as the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of second and third matches in the series, which were scheduled to take place in Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and March 18, respectively.
While there is no clarity on the reason behind removing Manjrekar, the report added that the authorities were not happy with his work amid recent controversies.
“Maybe he will be left out from the IPL panel too. At this stage, it is not on top of our minds. But the fact is they are not happy with his work,” a source was quoted as saying by Mirror.
In recent times, Manjrekar called Team India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja ‘a bits and pieces cricketer’ during the 2019 ICC World Cup and then a few months later questioned the credentials of Harsha Bhogle during the historic Pink-ball Test against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens.
