Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

With a straight bat

Raring to go! Sanjay Manjrekar’s first big assignment will be Twenty-20 World Cup

“I have carried the lifestyle of my cricket days to commentary. I go to bed early on the night before the game, avoid heavy lunch…my colleagues find this pursuit of perfection boring.” This is Sanjay Manjrekar for you. As he joins ESPN-Star Sports’ team of commentators, he still strives for flawlessness.“I don’t go with any preset notions. I treat every shot and player on merit. When I host, I go with basic questions because I feel answers will lead to more genuine questions,” says Manjrekar, who started his career as a commentator with Ten Sports.

As for music, he reveals he is very particular about his net practice, the riyaz. “I am learning from a big name in the industry for the last 18 months. I don’t want to reveal his name because it will amount to name dropping. Let me hone my skills and then I will come with an album.” Manjrekar had cut an album “Rest Day”, where he sang his team-mates’ favourite songs. Manjrekar says the game has changed over the years and there is no longer a rest day in a Test match and so have his interests in music. “I love to watch Twenty-20 and I am working on contemporary music!”

The dressing room atmosphere also seems to have changed. “When I got selected for the first time there was considerable gap between senior and junior, but by the time I retired it was pretty much covered. Now I believe it is even better.”

He doesn’t like to look back at the past. “Despite repeated requests, I haven’t picked the bat after 1998 for any format. But from my experience I would suggest youngsters take the game in a relaxed fashion. I was so much after perfection that I could not enjoy my success, even my double hundred against Pakistan.” Was it something inherited? “No, my father was not like that. It was my own creation.”

Technical perfection is no longer the buzzword in the game, but Sanjay says technique is not a constant. “Technique is something which allows you to score substantially at a decent pace over a period of time. When somebody like Sehwag achieves it in his own style, nobody could question him on technique. He has set a new standard where body balance and hand-eye coordination are much more vital than playing close to the body, which was the benchmark in our times. In those days batsmen who were following traditional methods were far more successful than somebody like Srikanth.”

Manjrekar, in fact, wants to have a debate on whether the present Indian team is the best ever. “I feel it is, because today six to seven players can win us a game, which was not the case earlier. We used to rely on two or three players.” But friendly wickets, where a spinner ended up as the highest wicket-taker, seem to have played a part in the historic success in New Zealand. “They did offer us better wickets to undo the past mistakes, but we should appreciate the fact that the Kiwis also had a world-class spinner in Daniel Vettori and he was not effective at all.” Straight bat again.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail