Sanjay Manjrekar removed from BCCI's commentary panel: Report

Amidst the worldwide panic caused by the highly-contagious Coronavirus outbreak, a major news issued by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) went completely unnoticed. According to reports, the BCCI recently dropped former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar from its commentary panel. During the first washed-out ‘Ind vs SA’ ODI affair in Dharamsala, Sanjay Manjrekar was not present at the venue while the other commentators from BCCI’s panel like Sunil Gavaskar and Murali Kartik were present.

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BCCI drops Sanjay Manjrekar from its commentary panel

Sanjay Manjrekar was part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) commentary panel for many major ICC events ever since he took up the commentary gig post his retirement in 1996. While Manjrekar is one of the most experienced commentators in the world, the former Mumbai captain has been involved in quite a few controversies over the years. Meanwhile, apart from a statement, no particular reason has been released by any official stating as to why Sanjay Manjrekar was dropped.

While issuing a statement to the reporters, a BCCI source simply said that the esteemed former cricketer is excluded from its commentary panel because of the fact that BCCI are not happy with his work. It is to be noted that the BCCI is also planning to exclude Sanjay Manjrekar from the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) season panel, should the tournament go ahead with its postponed date of April 15.

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Coronavirus outbreak’s impact on IPL 2020 and other sporting events

In other news, a massive statement was released by BCCI on Friday, March 13 stating the launch date of the upcoming IPL 2020 has been pushed to April 15. The BCCI’s decision comes as a precautionary measure against the Coronavirus. While the IPL 2020 has been postponed, other bilateral ODI series like ‘Ind vs SA’ and ‘Aus vs NZ’ have been entirely called off after their respective first matches.

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