The perfect

Daanish Bin Nabi

daanishnabi@gmail.com

Sanjay Manjrekar, one of India’s finest test batsman, has candidly written about his family and career, especially about the relationship with his father - Vijay Manjrekar. His autobiography “Imperfect” tells it all.

Family affair

The book opens with author’s personal story about his family and relationship with his father. Sanjay openly writes that how as a child he feared his father because of his irrational behaviour as he could not adjust with life post retirement.

One of India’s best test batsman, Vijay Manjrekar died aged 52. The author says that the only thing he remember about his father is – fear. About his mother, Sanjay writes, that she was a pious and religious lady. Sanjay is very lucid in his account. In a no holds barred account Sanjay has opened-up on all front about his life.

He has also accepted that he was never interested in cricket but in fame and used his cricketing advantage to get fame. He was always interested in films, music, and documentaries other than cricket, post his retirement.

Mumbai cricket

Sanjay writes that he loved batting defensively as it was his strength and natural game. He says that he grew watching Sunil Gavaskar and wanted to be like him as he was his hero.

The author writes that when he was captaining the Mumbai University Team for a month long tournament in Baroda, he met Rajdeep Sardesi for the first time. However, he writes, Rajdeep was not good at cricket and instead chose journalism. Sanjay writes that he is proud what Rajdeep has achieved in the field of journalism.  

The author has held the Mumbai Cricket in high esteem and gives credit to them for producing good cricketers, umpires, and selectors. He writes that the stories of Zaher Khan and Vinod Kamble stand out as how they were taken back by the robust Mumbai cricketing system.

Sanjay gives credit for such a robust cricketing system to Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Sardesi and Dilip Vengsarkar. He writes that later on there were likes of Sachin Tendulkar to serve the Mumbai Cricket.

He writes that Mumbai cricketers had a systematic advantage over those from other states. He says that if you had talent and the hunger everything around you was designed to take you to the highest level. He also talks in detail about how Mumbai cricketing system encouraged the cricket at school, college and university levels. Some of the schools even had celebrated coaches that likes of legendary Ramakant Achrekar.

Caribbean cricketers

Sanjay while praising all opposing teams, he has a special mention about the West Indies players. He writes that the Windies players were the most quietist while the most noisiest were the Pakistanis. He writes that the great West Indian team had all the natural attributes; but what made them winners was the fierce pride they had as individuals.

Explaining the “fierce pride”, Sanjay writes that on one of the tours of West Indies; a West Indian fan welcomed the Indian side saying “welcome to West Indies; but sorry we are going to beat you”. Sanjay says that such was the confidence of the fans on their team.

Writing about a cricketing match on the same tour; Sanjay say that the fans had bought a big speakers in the stands which played catchy local tunes. He writes that Arun Lal took a blow in one of the ODIs and even as Indian Physio was attending him, loud music blared from the speakers and the fans dance to it. He writes that those visiting teams that gave West Indies a tough fight, they would adore such a team. Sanjay writes that is why West Indians worshipped Gavaskar.

About the legendary Sir Viv Richards, Sanjay has an exceptional regard. His pride drove him, writes Sanjay, to do that bit extra. He believed he was second to none. And that is why when he played cricket he wanted his team to be second to none.

Imperfect Pakistan

The heart of “Imperfect” is the chapter titled “Pakistan”. The chapter not only makes a reader laugh but gives an insight about a cricketing team who against all odds have dominated the world cricket in one form or the other. Sanjay writes that the Pakistani players used to sledge each other rather than with the opposition. And that Pakistanis were known to be emotional cricketers.

He writes that it was loud when one went out to bat against Pakistan, but the noise would be of Pakistani players sledging each other. They would quarrel with each other on the field. They were constantly at each other when the Imran Khan wasn’t near.

Sanjay writes that at times Pakistan resembled a dysfunctional family, constantly quarrelling but coming together when it mattered. He says that undoubtedly, Pakistan had exceptional talent, but they needed a patriarch to bring them all together.

He writes that Pakistan was notorious for fielding three men against the opposition which included two umpires. However, Imran Khan wanted the world to see that his team could beat Indian without these umpires.

Sanjay Manjrekar, being a die-hard fan of Imran Khan, praise him a lot in the book. He writes that Imran was merciless on himself and he expected the same from other. No one was as focused on the game as Imran was. Sanjay writes that Imran was not born great. He had to work hard and put himself through tremendous grind to achieve greatness. Citing his friend Ramiz Raja, Sanjay writes that there were never a single negative thought expressed in the Pakistan dressing room during Imran’s tenure as captain.

Sanjay writes that it will be forever his regret that Indian’s had no likes of Imran in its dressing room.

He has also openly wrote that it was hard for India to win against Pakistan. He writes that the Indian team of the post-2010 era are incredibly lucky – they get to play a Pakistan team only a shadow of the team of the 1980s and 1990s.

The chapter is loaded with anecdotes about author’s encounter with Pakistan team and about overall Pakistan cricket. An abstract of this chapter was also published by ESPN cricinfo titled “Immy’s Crowd” on January 8, 2018.

Semi-final against Sri Lanka

Sanjay holds the “big win” against Pakistan in quarter final responsible for India’s ouster from World Cup in 1996 saying that India couldn’t recover from this big win. Sanjay writes that: “It is my firm belief that we lost the semi-final against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens because we won that quarter-final against Pakistan.”

He writes that there was lot of talk about match fixing when India lost semi-finals to Sri Lanka after Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Talking about the match fixing, he writes, that it was decided in team meeting that Sri Lanka’s strength was in chasing down the total. They had beaten the India in the league match of the world cup and that is why it was decided in the team meeting to chase at Eden Garden. He repeatedly emphasise that there was no match fixing in the match.

Praising the wit of one of India’s finest batsmen, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sanjay writes, he was the only one in the team who had felt strongly about batting first and had openly opposed the idea of chasing in team meetings.

The high octane game of India and Pakistan in quarter final has been explained at length in the book. Sanjay has described the match as “greatest quarter finals of all times”.

He writes that the legendary Javed Miandad was playing this quarter final as his last match and was struggling to get runs and eventually got out. He says that when Indians got Saleem Malik they thought the match was over. However, there was more to it. Sanjay writes when Rashid Latif came out to bat and hit a six over long-on. “I remember thinking at that moment, this Pakistan team is like a lizard – try and kill it, the tail still has a life of its own,” writes Sanjay.

He writes that after the game, Miandad, spent more time in Indian dressing room that his own. Sanjay has explained the situation as “strange” and “nice”.

The Indian team   

He has also talked about his last four years of his career saying that during his last four to five years Sanjay was only trying to save his career. He finally announced retirement in 1998 and took to commentary.

Talking about his years of struggle towards end of his career he writes that it was out of sheer fatigue from swimming, swimming, swimming, just to stay afloat that “I said enough is enough and gave myself two matches to enjoy and bid farewell.”

He also talks about his former captain Mohammad Azharuddin and the team meetings they had prior to the matches. He writes that these meetings were conducted in hotel rooms and lasted only for five minutes. He writes that Azharuddin’s team talks as captain were funny. He has described his talks as “mumbling monologues” saying that they sounded exactly like the old short-wave transistors. Like the sound waves on the radio, the volumes of his voice would also go and down.

The author says there were two teams within the Indian team during early 1990s and things only changed after Ajay Jadeja was taken on board as a batsman. He writes that there always was bitter rivalry between north and south zone players and there was much mistrust, envy, and hatred among senior players. 

“Imperfect” has also talked in detail about sting operation of Tehelka; Sachin’s stardom, the stories of Kiran More and Manoj Prabakhar; Sanjay’s stint as an lead commentator and a TV host. His commentary stints with Tony Greig, Ian Chappell, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, Simon Doull, Pommie Mbangwa, and Ian Bishop.

A brief has been also provided about the Hashim Amla and Dean controversy. Sanjay writes that Dean had called Amla a “terrorist” in a humorous manner not knowing that they were in air. Sanjay says that Dean did not mean it and is not a racist at all.

Tail Piece

The candid confessions which Sanjay Manjrekar has made in his autobiography speaks volumes of his honesty and personality. This autobiography is not “Imperfect” but a perfect one.

Published in RK on 18 April 2018