Former cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar on Monday (December 30) admitted it was wrong of him to have that bitter on-air spat with colleague Harsha Bhogle during the pink ball Test between India and Bangladesh in Kolkata last month.

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The argument was about the visibility of the pink ball in a Day-Night Test match. As per Harsha, to get a better idea of whether the ball is clearly visible or not, players’ viewpoint needed to be taken into consideration.

However, Manjrekar had suggested there was no issue with the visibility of the ball and he knows it because he has played international cricket unlike Bhogle.

"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.

"People who have read my book know that I have actually made plea for production companies to have good commentators, doesn't matter whether they have played cricket or not," Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo's videocast.

Here’s how the conversation between Sanjay and Harsha had panned out:

“When there is a post-mortem done of this, and there should be a post-mortem of this game, the visibility of the ball will be a big factor against those white side screen,” Bhogle had said.

“Don’t think so,” Manjrekar replied. “Because when you see the way the catches at slips have been taken, the visibility does not seem to be an issue at all. The texture of the ball is the issue.”

Harsha felt it is important to ask the players. “I’d ask all of them, batsmen from both the teams, what do you think about the visibility... It doesn’t cost anything. You might as well ask players everything... say nothing here,” Manjrekar said. “You might need to ask, Harsha. For us, who have played the game, get a fair idea of what is happening out there,” he went on to add.

After listening to Manjrekar, Harsha responded, “The reason I’d ask everybody Sanjay because when you have played the game what the conditions are... but it cannot be a limitation to learning. It can be an aid to learning. If you don’t ask players, we would never have got T20 cricket or day-night cricket. So sometimes, it’s best to ask everybody what they think and justify your hypotheses rather than ruling it out completely.”

Manjrekar finished the discussion: “Point taken but don’t agree."

Subsequently, Sanjay Manjrekar had faced a lot of wrath on social media from cricket fans for disrespecting a veteran commentator like Bhogle.