World Cup 2019: Why Ravindra Jadeja might be wrong to go after Sanjay Manjrekar

Ravindra Jadeja’s recent comment against Sanjay Manjrekar might have come as a surprise to many cricketing fans around the world. Apparently, Jadeja was furious with Manjrekar’s analysis of his cricketing abilities.

When asked whether he would pick Jadeja over Kuldeep Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal, Manjrekar seemed to have replied that he "would rather have a batsman and a spinner than a bits and pieces player like Jadeja." This prompted Jadeja to publically go out against Manjrekar as he seemed to have referred to Manjrekar’s comments as "verbal diarrhoea" amid a defiant call for respect.

Such antagonism between two Indian cricketers is obviously not pleasant to witness especially during an ongoing World Cup campaign. However, this forces us to consider what really is at stake here. This is particularly so because many fans have demanded Manjrekar’s sacking from the panel of commentators in World Cup in response to the above-mentioned incident. If we were to sack every commentator who had a critical assessment of a cricketer, we would be left with a bunch of yes-men agreeing with every popular opinion. Now surely that is not what is expected out of a commentator.

Jadeja stresses the fact that he has played more matches than Manjrekar which entitles him to respect. Is this the proper criteria? Manjrekar’s logical justification for the critical comments regarding Jadeja comes from the fact that he has established himself as a cricket commentator and not from his relative cricketing record. Now, one can surely criticize the prevailing standard of cricket commentary but no one can deny that Manjrekar has passed that very standard to be where he is.

Even if one were to take the criteria of cricketing record, going merely by the number of matches is a very narrow assessment of what the game of cricket stands for. One’s legacy goes far beyond numbers and statistics. This is not to say that Manjrekar was a better cricketer than Jadeja but to highlight the fact that going by the number of matches does not say a lot about a cricketer.

Manjrekar’s comments are also not way off the mark. After playing more than 150 ODIs, Jadeja has not been able to prove himself as a specialist. At best, he can be termed as an all-rounder who can offer something in every department of the game. However, that slot in the Indian cricket team has been rightly taken by Hardik Pandya, who has been consistent with the bat and the ball in the ongoing World Cup.

Part of respect that Jadeja is so defiantly claiming comes from one’s attitude towards his or her critiques. He has full freedom to disagree with his critiques but there is a very clear line between calling a commentator’s assessment verbal diarrhoea and merely disagreeing with it.

This brings into our attention the larger issue of relative lack of humility in the newer brand of cricketers as compared to previous generation stalwarts comprising the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan, etc. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that in today’s world, a cricketer’s worth is measured, to a huge extent, by his social media presence where expedience sometimes reaps more points than humility.

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