Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has time and again been criticized by Indian fans for his obnoxious opinions about his country’s cricketers. Manjrekar had even taken a sly dig on Indian ace player Sania Mirza when she tweeted about her numero uno spot in the Tennis Doubles Ranking.
Manjrekar was again in the news when he recently said that Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin doesn’t make it to the category of ‘Legends of the game.’ He had mentioned that the off-spinner hadn’t bagged any five wickets haul against South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA).
“‘All-time great’ is the highest praise & acknowledgement given to a cricketer. Cricketers like Don Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Virat etc are all time greats in my book. With due respect, Ashwin not quite there as an all-time great yet,” Manjrekar had commented.
‘All- time great’ is the highest praise & acknowledgement given to a cricketer. Cricketers like Don Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Virat etc are all time greats in my book. With due respect, Ashwin not quite there as an all-time great yet. 🙏#AllTimeGreatExplained😉
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 6, 2021
Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund has come to the fore to defend his state teammate and stated that he ‘respectfully disagrees’ with Manjrekar.
Mukund agreed that though Ashwin hasn’t taken a fifer against SENA, he has had an indelible impact against them.
“I read an article today where Sanjay Manjrekar said that ‘I disagree that he is a legend of the game’. I have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Manjrekar and say he is a legend of the game because he holds several world records. The accusation towards him is that he’s never performed in SENA countries. But I think he had a fantastic tour to Australia. If you look at it that way, and if you just look at the number of five-wicket-hauls he’s taken and what an impact he’s been to as a leader, he’s probably one of the legends of the game in my opinion at least,” Mukund told stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant on his YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, Ashwin would be gearing up for the World Test Championship (WTC) final clash against New Zealand in England starting from June 18.
