Was once called the next Sunil Gavaskar… Dravid-Ganguly ended their careers! Questions were raised on Sachin Tendulkar

New Delhi. Sanjay Manjrekar was once considered the real successor of Sunil Gavaskar in Indian cricket. He inherited cricket. His father Vijay Manjrekar was a legendary batsman of the era when Indian cricket was struggling to establish its footing on the international stage. However, see the game of destiny that when senior Manjrekar passed away, Sanjay was only 18 years old. Till that time he had not even made his debut in Ranji Trophy. Despite this, Vijay Manjrekar always had the deep belief that one day his son would not only play cricket but would also wear the jersey of Team India.

As long as Sanjay Manjrekar played international cricket, he was recognized as a technically very capable and solid batsman. His record, especially on foreign pitches, was excellent and exemplary. Because of his amazing and perfect batting technique, fellow players often called him ‘Mr. Perfect’. However, Sachin Tendulkar, known as the God of Cricket, had a slightly different view. Sachin used to call him not ‘Mr Perfect’ but ‘Mr Different’, which reflected his unique personality.

untimely end of career
Despite so much ability, Sanjay Manjrekar could not achieve the historic heights in his career that the contemporary cricket world and fans had expected from him. The graph of his career could not last as long as expected. Sanjay Manjrekar himself revealed the shocking reason behind this untimely end to the world years later. In his autobiography ‘Imperfect’, launched in 2018, he openly made many big revelations. Manjrekar candidly admitted that his international career came to an early end due to the rise of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly on the Indian cricket horizon.

The 1996 tour of England and the feeling of ‘time’s up’
Manjrekar wrote in his book that when he decided to leave the game, he was an important batsman of the team and was not out of form at all. But the historic tour of England in 1996 completely changed his way of thinking. On that tour, everyone had expectations from Rahul Dravid that he would perform brilliantly, but Sourav Ganguly’s performance came as a big and pleasant surprise for everyone.

Sanjay wrote very honestly in his autobiography that after seeing Rahul Dravid, it seemed as if he was directly made for Team India. Seeing the way Dravid and Ganguly batted in the conditions of England, Sanjay had understood that now his ‘time’ was over and it would be better to leave the path to the youth. After retiring, instead of withdrawing himself, Manjrekar turned to the commentary box and created a completely different and strong identity for himself across the world as an outspoken commentator.

Sachin Tendulkar’s criticism and playing-11 controversy
Sanjay Manjrekar is known for his outspokenness and he did not shy away from criticizing Sachin Tendulkar in his book. However, he expressed his views in very balanced and sweet words. Manjrekar wrote that when Sachin was going through the last phase of his career, many times some wrong things were happening in the team because of him. This was the period when Sachin was struggling with very poor form, but being a very reputed and great player, none of the then selectors or management had the courage to show him a way out of the playing-11. Manjrekar believed that a player’s continued inclusion in the team despite being in poor form was a cruel joke on other talented youngsters sitting on the sidelines.