Sanjay Majrekar took a U-turn on his ‘surprised’ remark on Murali Vijay during the first Test between India and Australia, which sparked a verbal volley between the two on social media. It all started when a statistic was flashed on the TV screen which showed Murali Vijay currently has the best conversion rate for any Indian opener at home. Manjrekar, while commentating during the match, read out the stat and sounded surprised after seeing Vijay's name in the list which featured the likes of Polly Umrigar and Rohit Sharma.
Manjrekar's remark didn't go down well with Vijay. Vijay, who looked irate with the remark, took to Twitter and wrote," @sanjaymanjrekar Surprised wow".
In the second tweet, Vijay slameed Manjrekar and wrote: "Some Mumbai ex-players can never be appreciative of the south!"
In the second tweet, he said: "Some Mumbai ex-players can never be appreciative of the south ! "
Later Manjrekar made amends for his previous remark as subtly brought the topic up again during the match and after Rohit Sharma's record century after lunch. He said that the contributions of players like Vijay are often forgotten by fans.
"He (Rohit) is No. 2 now with eight hundreds when it comes to conversion rates at home. It is a good thing that Murali Vijay is in that list because we tend to forget the contributions that people like him make. 12 Test hundreds – nine out of them at home and a brilliant conversion rate right at the top," Manjrekar said.
This is not the first time Manjrekar's comments have sparked debate and hurt cricketers. In the past, players like Ravindra Jadeja and Kieron Pollard have slammed him for his choice of words. Murali Vijay has joined the list now as well.
Vijay, who hung his boots on January 30, 2023, last represented the national team in the Perth Test against Australia in December 2018. He played a total of 61 Tests, 17 ODIs and nine T20 Internationals for India.
