5 times Sanjay Manjrekar created social media stir: Kohli in 2012, Gambhir in 2024

Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar stirred a social media storm with his latest tweet on India head coach Gautam Gambhir. On Monday, November 11, Manjrekar reacted to the coach's press conference ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and opined that Gambhir did not have the right demeanour to attend a press conference.

A section of fans called out Manjrekar for his 'ignorant' comments and slammed him for repeatedly offending India and international players. From Virat Kohli, to Ravindra Jadeja, to Kieron Pollard. Manjrekar list of controversial tweets and comments is a long one. So, here are 5 times that Sanjay Manjrekar stirred the pot with comments against players.

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Let's start with the latest one first. Sanjay Manjrekar, in a strongly-worded statement, criticised Gambhir's press conference on Monday, 11 November, saying the Indian cricket board (BCCI) should keep him away from press duties.

Manjrekar went on to say that Gambhir lacked the “demeanour” to represent the Indian cricket team in press meets and should instead stay behind the scenes and focus on the job at hand.

"Just watched Gambhir in the press conference. May be wise for @BCCI to keep him away from such duties, let him work behind the scenes. He does not have the right demeanour nor the words when interacting with them. Rohit & Agarkar, much better guys to front up for the media," Manjrekar wrote on X.

Virat Kohli in 2012

Sanjay Manjrekar's 2012 tweet on Virat Kohli keeps going viral from time to time. India cricket fans do not let Manjrekar forget that back in Kohli's early days, Manjrekar had no faith in the India batter and wanted the selection committee to drop the batter from the team.

"I would still drop VVS & get rohit in for next test.Makes long term sense. give virat 1 more test..just to be sure he does not belong here," Manjrekar had said in his tweet.

Clear to say now, that the tweet did not age well.

Ravindra Jadeja in 2019

Sanjay Manjrekar was torn into 'bits and pieces' by a section of fans in Indian cricket who keep calling him out every time Ravindra Jadeja does well for India.

The former cricketer faced a lot of backlash on social media ever since he called Jadeja a 'bits and pieces' cricketer.

"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 Test matches, he is a pure bowler. But in 50-over cricket, I would rather have a batsman and a spinner," Manjrekar had said. Jadeja had reacted strongly to Manjrekar's comments on Twitter.

"Still i have played twice the number of matches you have played and i m still playing. Learn to respect ppl who have achieved.i have heard enough of your verbal diarrhoea," Jadeja had lashed out at Manjrekar.

Manjrekar took a while to let that incident go as he came out on Twitter to defend his remark, stating that he was being quoted without context.

"Bits and pieces means non specialist...explaining the term yet again for the ‘English challenged’. In Tests have always supported Jadeja because he is a formidable pure bowler hence a specialist. Understood great Rajagopalan?" Manjrekar had lashed out at a certain Twitter user back in 2019.

Kieron Pollard in 2017

Before Jadeja, Manjrekar had gotten into a spat with Mumbai Indians' all-rounder Kieron Pollard. Pollard had called Manjrekar out for his aggressive criticism during the Indian Premier League after Manjrekar had said that the West Indian did not have the brains to bat higher up the order.

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“Pollard does not have the brains to play early in the innings,” Manjrekar had noted while commentating about the all-rounder’s innings which saw only one four and one six leave quite a bit of work to be done by the rest of the MI batters.

“@sanjaymanjrekar u feel any positive can come out of your mouth bcuz u get pay to talk u can continue with your verbal diarrhoea (sic),” Pollard had tweeted.

Published By: Kingshuk Kusari Published On: Nov 11, 2024

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