Sanjay Manjrekar's 'Rude' Jibe at Harsha Bhogle Over Pink Ball Visibility Has Angered Cricket Fans
Despite a complete dominance shown by Indian pacers in the second Test, who led India to an emphatic win in their first-ever pink ball Day/Night Test at Eden Gardens against Bangladesh, it was an ugly on-air conversation that became the top trending topic on Indian Twitter on Sunday.
Coming out to bowl on the third day in the much-talked-about "Pink Test", Bangladesh's lower-order faltered within one hour's play on Sunday. As a result, India registered their first pink-ball victory by an innings and 46 runs to complete a 2-0 series whitewash over visiting Bangladesh.
However, during the match, former cricketer and current commentator Sanjay Manjrekar got in an awkward on-air spat with fellow commentator Harsha Bhogle when the latter insisted on studying cricketers' perspectives regarding the visibility of the pink ball.
Bhogle was referring to several incidents that took place during the course of the match wherein Bangladeshi batsmen were seen taking hard hits onto their helmets. The commentator simply suggested Manjrekar for a fair "post-mortem" after the match to study if the players were facing any such difficulty in sighting the pink ball.
"Well there is a post-mortem done on this game and there should be a post mortem on this game. Visibility of that ball will be a big factor against the big white sight-screen," Bhogle said.
"Don't think so. Because when you see the slip catchers the way they have taken catches, I don't think visibility is an issue at all. The texture of the ball is the issue," responded Manjrekar.
Bhogle, however, was adamant about learning the player's POV, who were out there in the middle and actually dealing with the pink ball.
"You need to ask perhaps, for us, those who have played the game, we have a fair idea of what’s happening out there,” Manjrekar responded to Bhogle implying that he had a fair idea as he had "played the game".
Manjrekar further added that having played 10-15 years of first-class cricket, he could perhaps say that with authority.
To which Bhogle simply responded by saying, “having played cricket should never be a limitation or a ceiling to learning.”
Manjrekar taking a "dig" at Bhogle for not having played cricket and dismissing his suggestion did not sit well with cricket fans in India.
Their ugly spat and clear disagreement was shared on Twitter which soon went viral.
In fact, on a day when Ishant Sharma was awarded both Man of the Match and Man of the Series for his spectacular contribution with the ball, #Harsha became the top trend on Twitter.
Fans had a World Cup déjà vu of sorts and they reduced Manjrekar's unwelcomed jibe to "bits and pieces". Mincing no words, many called out on Manjrekar's apparent arrogance on microblogging site.
