Sanjay Vijay Manjrekar the prolific former Indian cricketer and son of cricketer Vijay Manjrekar, is an established cricket commentator now. He played for India as a right-handed batsman from 1987 to 1996.
Known for his batting technique and ability to tackle pace and bounce on foreign pitches, Sanjay Manjrekar was a mainstay of the Indian batting middle-order in the early 1990s, scoring 4 Test hundreds and 1 ODI hundred.
Sanjay Manjrekar was already an established player while Sachin Tendulkar was making his mark in international cricket, and the duo formed a few formidable partnerships in the Indian middle order. Sachin Tendulkar used to describe him as Mr. Perfect' for his excellent technique.
He released his autobiography in 2018 named 'Imperfect', which shed light on his life and gave reasons why his cricketing career was short-lived playing only 111 matches in Indian colours. (In Pic: Sanjay Manjrekar with Chandrakant Pandit.)
Perhaps more well-known for his commentary stint than his cricketing career, Sanjay Manjrekar has been seen in the commentary box for most of India's international tournaments in the past two decades.
While keeping a clean record away from controversies during his cricket career, Sanjay Manjrekar has not been able to stay off them during his commentary stint, most notably for his spats with Harsha Bhogle, Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya on social media.
Harsha Bhogle who was not a part of the commentary team for IPL 2016, retweeted a tweet which said commentary without Harsha is like Pizza without toppings'. This tweet apparently did not go down too well with Sanjay Manjrekar, who was a part of the IPL 2016 commentary team. He took to Twitter to express his views and ended up being trolled by Harsha Bhogle's followers.
Another tiff of which Sanjay Manrekar was a part of was with the Mumbai Indians, all-rounder Kieron Pollard. The West Indian accused Manjrekar of calling him brainless' while commentating during the IPL 2017 match between MI and KKR at Wankhede. All hell broke loose when Pollard exploded on Sanjay Manjrekar in a series of tweets regarding the same.
Sanjay Manjrekar landed in trouble with Sania Mirza as well on Twitter. In October 2016, Sania Mirza tweeted about completing 80 consecutive weeks as world's no.1 tennis player, Manjrekar replied correcting her by saying she is the no.1 doubles player. Sania Mirza saw this as an insult to her achievements and replied by asking if he had any common sense left.
Apart from his flourishing career as a commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar is also known as a family man and a doting father.
Sanjay Manjrekar in the passenger's seat while his son Siddharth is driving. Sanjay captioned the photo, 'Various stages of parenting. Now it's sitting next to son while he drives.'
Sanjay Manjrekar's picture with his wife on their wedding anniversary, he quoted My longest partnership. #weddinganniversary'
Sanjay Manjrekar shared this picture with son Siddharth Manjrekar at the airport in Tokyo, Japan
A family picture with the Manjrekars. Son Siddharth Manjrekar towering over dad cannot go unnoticed
In picture: Sanjay Manjrekar holidaying in Alibaug with Ajay Jadeja, RP Singh, Deep Das Gupta and Murali Karthik amongst others
In picture: A very young Sanjay Manjrekar after winning the Giles Shield final which also happened to be his first game at the Wankhede
Sanjay Manjrekar and Mandira Bedi celebrate the success of Extra Innings during the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 at Taxi restaurant, Colaba, Mumbai
Sanjay Manjrekar with Salman Khan and Zinat Shaukat Ali spread the message of communal harmony at a cricket match. Cricket For Peace was organized by NGO WISDOM Foundation at Cricket Club of India, Churchgate, Mumbai
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