Was misunderstood as degrading Jadeja due to English; Indians are sensitive to criticism, claims Sanjay Manjrekar

Following in the footsteps of Shoaib Akhtar, cricketer-turned-analyst Sanjay Manjrekar has made a bizarre claim as he stated English as a language is highly misunderstood in India owing to it not even being the second language for most of the people. Sanjay Manjrekar was axed from BCCI's commentary panel, a while back, believed that his work wasn't up to the mark and he is also not going to be part of the IPL in the capacity of a TV commentator. 

The former Mumbai batsman had a major fall out with Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja during last year's World Cup when he had labelled him a 'bits and pieces cricketer', which Jadeja didn't take it too well and had hit back at Manjrekar in a fierce manner. After that, the former Indian cricketer courted controversy after he raised questions on Harsha Bhogle's analysis owing not to have played cricket, for which he faced major backlash and had to apologize later. 

"I think people now have more platforms to react. We, Indians, are very sensitive to criticism. The other problem is that English as a language is often misunderstood. For most people, it is not even the second language. A lot of the terms I tend to use are misunderstood. For example, when I had said that 'Tendulkar-related' issues are like the elephant in the room. So, that was a term that was misunderstood. People thought I was calling him a 'white elephant'. In the case of 'bits and pieces', people thought it was the degradation of a player. So, if I would have said 'non-specialist', then I don’t think there would have had been a furore," Manjrekar said in an interview with Money Control.

He also opined that people have issues in making observations citing the example of Naseer Hussain wherein he had termed Indians 'donkeys on the field', which had invited the wrath of the Indian public.

"Once Naseer Hussain had called some Indian players 'donkeys on the field', which is a normal English term for people who move slowly and there was a big controversy. So, that is one of the problems in making observations in English and assuming that everyone knows."