Indian Premier League

South Africa

Murali Kartik

Ravindra Jadeja

Harsha Bhogle

Kolkata

In the haziness surrounding the spread and threat of Covid-19 and chaos following the postponement of(IPL) games andODIs, an important Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decision has gone unnoticed. It concerns a certain Sanjay Manjrekar.The former India batsman and arguably one of the best commentators in world cricket has been dropped from the commentary panel by the BCCI. It did not get noticed because the first ODI against South Africa in Dharamsala got washed out. He was not here in the hill town while all the other BCCI panel commentators, including Sunil Gavaskar, L Sivaramakrishnan and, were present.Manjrekar was part of the commentary panel for the last three World Cups and virtually all International Cricket Council (ICC) events since his retirement in 1996. But he has not been found good enough for the BCCI matches. If one were to understand, the BCCI is planning not to include him in the IPL commentary panel also, should the league start on the revised date of April 15.Not too many were willing to comment on why Manjrekar was left out, but a BCCI source confirmed that that the 54-year-old former Mumbai captain has, in fact, been excluded from the panel. "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," said the source.The source would not explain who 'they' are, but it is unlikely that the BCCI office-bearers would be unaware. By the way BCCI president Sourav Ganguly himself is a commentator of repute and was part of the ICC panel for quite a few ICC events, including the World Cups.It is a fact that Manjrekar has courted quite a few controversies in the recent times, like making a critical remark onand getting into an argument with fellow commentatoron air during the pink ball Test Test inlast year. He had called Jadeja a bits and pieces player and sportingly admitted to his mistake after the all-rounder delivered a sterling performance. "By bits 'n' pieces of sheer brilliance, he's ripped me apart on all fronts," he had said.Similarly, he had confessed to his error on the Bhogle issue too. "With that particular comment, it was me losing control and I was unprofessional, I was wrong. It is something that I regret, it was wrong of me so that is what really bothers me that I let my emotions get the better of me. So mostly being unprofessional and to an extent indecent as well. First thing that I did was apologise to the producers because I was wrong," he had told Cricinfo later.Manjrekar did not respond to calls and text messages from this paper.