The BCCI has barred Sanjay Manjrekar from the list of seven Indian commentators finalised for the 13th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), starting September 19.
See Also: “IPL schedule should be released by Friday”, declares BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly
As per a report published in Mumbai Mirror, those who have been included for the world-feed broadcast are – Sunil Gavaskar, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Murali Kartik, Deep Dasgupta, Rohan Gavaskar, Harsha Bhogle and Anjum Chopra.
The report further claims that Dasgupta and Kartik have been placed in the panel for Abu Dhabi matches and the rest for Dubai and Sharjah games.
While the detailed itinerary is still awaited, Dubai and Abu Dhabi will reportedly host 21 games each while 14 matches of the league stage will be played in Sharjah. The venues for the play-offs will be decided later but it may not be a surprise if Dubai and Sharjah are picked for those four fixtures.
According to Mumbai Mirror, the commentators will be divided into three panels and will be placed in two bubbles – one in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi.
Dasgupta and Kartik were supposed to board the flight for Abu Dhabi on September 4 but with the government there relaxing the quarantine period from 14 to seven days, the two will depart with the rest on September 10.
Coming to Sanjay Manjrekar, BCCI had sacked him from the commentary panel before the India-South Africa series in March this year.
As per reports, Manjrekar's comments on India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja went against him. During the 2019 World Cup in England, he had grabbed the headlines by calling Jadeja a “bits and pieces” cricketer.
Reacting to his comments, Jadeja posted a tweet, asking Manjrekar to respect the achievement of people.
Once the Jadeja controversy cooled down, Manjrekar got involved in an on-air spat with Harsha Bhogle during India’s first ever Day-Night Test against Bangladesh in October.
The argument was about the visibility of the new pink-ball. As per Harsha, to get a better idea of whether the ball is clearly visible or not, commentators should ask the players about it. On which, Manjrekar said he can observe it from here. He also took a jibe at Harsha who hasn't played top-level cricket and said he has the experience of 15 years of domestic cricket and doesn't need to go out and ask the players.
