Big Admission: Sanjay Manjrekar says 2019 was his worst year, because of 'Bits-and-pieces'

Cricket commentator and analyst Sanjay Manjrekar who was involved in one of the most infamous social media spats of the year, for his 'bits and pieces' jibe at India's ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, on Monday revealed that 2019 had been the worst year for him as a commentator and analyst.

Manjrekar's admission was in reference to his comments on Ravindra Jadeja during the ICC World Cup in England earlier this year for which he faced severe flak. In fact, after his comments, Jadeja responded to Manjrekar on-field by scoring significant 77 runs in the semi-final and also lashed out on him off-field on Twitter. 

'Jadeja played an absolute blinder of an innings'

Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar while speaking to a news channel on Monday said, "I started back in 1997-98, so it has been about 20-21 years and this year has been the worst for me as a commentator and an analyst." Furthermore, Manjrekar added, "Why I say that it was a terrible year is because I made that comment and very next game, Jadeja in that semi-final played an absolute blinder of an innings. The kind of batting that we have never seen."

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The commentator also said that he has never met Jadeja after that comment. When queried if he regrets making that comment, Manjrekar responded, "It is a commonly used cricketing term. The thing is I gave an interview to a random news channel and that line was picked up and the player got upset, something that a lot of people use. Kumar Sangakara, in the very next game, when he wanted to describe Jeevan Mendis, he used the exact term and I went like Sanga be careful about it."

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Manjrekar's 'Bits-and-pieces' comment

During India's match against Bangladesh in the ICC World Cup, earlier this year, Manjrekar who was commentating during the game had said, "I am not a big fan of bits and pieces players which Jadeja is at this point of his career in 50 over cricket. In a test match, he is a pure bowler. But in 50 over cricket, I would rather have a batsman and a spinner." The commentator received severe criticism over his comments while Jadeja took to Twitter to respond. Here is his tweet: 

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