It's not been a great week if you are Sanjay Manjrekar and have opinions on cricket and cricketers. The former Indian cricketer-turned-pundit Manjrekar after being lashed out at by Mohammed Shami last week, was on the receiving end of a strongly-worded response from the ex-India pacer Vinay Kumar, whom he unintentionally offended on comms during the first Test in Perth.
Manjrekar, Mark Nicholas and Russel Arnold were chatting about Indian pitches and pacers where the former reckoned that the state associations started leaving grass out on the pitches, which meant that the fast bowlers didn't have to do much and just put the ball in the right areas and let the surface do the rest of the work.
"But I think that's gone, but what it also did [leaving too much grass on the wicket] was medium pacers like the Vinay Kumars, with no disrespect to him, were topping the wicket-taking charts because all they needed to do with grass on the pitch was put the ball at 120 kmph in the right area, and they got wicket," Manjrekar said on air.
A day later, Vinay came up with a strong response saying that the 'medium pacer' became the first Indian fast bowler to get to a century of wickets in IPL and represented the country in all three formats.
"Sanjay bhai with due respect, your speed gun requires urgent servicing. 120KMPH. Seriously? With God’s grace I take pride in my achievements, I am contented, satisfied and happy with my life," Vinay wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
"Medium pacer like Vinay Kumar has worked really hard to become the 1st Indian fast bowler to take 100 IPL wickets also played for the country in all the formats. I take pride in my bowling. Anyways best wishes and regards," he added.
Last week Shami had lambasted Manjrekar for predicting the future after the latter reckoned that the Indian pacer might have a slightly reduced interest from the franchises given he has been out of the action for more than a year and recently returned to the action in the Ranji Trophy. Shami, who was bought for INR 6.25 crore by the Gujarat Titans, was picked by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 10 crore at the IPL 2025 auction.
As far as the match is concerned, India are closing in on a historic win in Perth after setting a humongous target of 534 runs for Australia to chase.
