IPL 2020: Sanjay Manjrekar Reacts After Being Removed From Commentary Panel   

Former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar finally opened up after being omitted from the commentary panel for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has been a part of the panel since the league in 2008.   

Manjrekar, who has been vocal on several aspects of cricket was removed from the India-South Africa ODIs, which got cancelled later and now IPL 13. He recently opened up saying, "It is better I don’t comment on that. I will be working full-time with ESPNCricinfo for their pre-match and post-match shows. I am also in the final stages of discussions with a news channel and will be an in-house expert for a fantasy league platform. I will also be writing columns plus doing updates for an FM radio station,” he said to Moneycontrol. 

Further talking about how his words were misunderstood, Manjrekar spoke on how Indians are 'very sensitive towards criticism'. "We, Indians, are very sensitive to criticism. The other problem is that English as a language is often misunderstood. For most people, it is not even a second language. A lot of the terms I tend to use are misunderstood. For example, when I had said that ‘Tendulkar-related’ issues are like the elephant in the room. So, that was a term that was misunderstood."

“People thought I was calling him a ‘white elephant’. In the case of ‘bits and pieces’, people thought it was the degradation of a player. So, if I would have said ‘non-specialist’, then I don’t think there would have been a furore. Once Nasser Hussain had called some Indian players ‘donkeys on the field’, which is a normal English term for people who move slowly and there was a big controversy. So, that is one of the problems in making observations in English and assuming that everyone knows,” Manjrekar added. 

Looking into the list of commentators- Kumar Sangakkara, Ian Bishop, Sunil and Rohan Gavaskar, Anjum Chopra, Mark Nicholas, Murali Karthik will form the panel for English commentators while Aakash Chopra, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Bangar, Kiran More will comprise the Hindi commentary panel for IPL 13.