Two former cricketers Murali Vijay and Sanjay Manjrekar were embroiled in an online spat following the latter's comment during the ongoing India vs Australia 1st Test at Nagpur stadium, Friday. During the match, a stat was shown on TV screen by broadcasters which said former India opener Murali Vijay has the best conversion rate for Indian players at home. Seeing Vijay topping the elite list featuring the likes of Rohit Sharma, Polly Umrigar, Manjrekar came up with a 'surprised' at Vijay leading the list. “I am surprised to see Murali at the top,” Manjrekar said on-air.
In the aftermath of the incident, Vijay took to Twitter to give it back to Manjrekar for his on-air 'surprised remark'.
Vijay took to Twitter saying, “@sanjaymanjrekar Surprised wow”. In another tweet, he said, “Some Mumbai ex players can never be appreciative of the south ! #showsomelove #equality #fairplayforall @sanjaymanjrekar @BCCI”.
After Lunch on Day 2 of IND vs AUS 1st Test, Manjrekar brought the topic, saying 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.
Murali Vijay announced retirement from all forms of cricket in January 2023. He played his last international match for India in December 2018, against Australia in Perth. The red-ball specialist represented India in 61 Tests, 17 ODIs and nine T20 matches, scoring 3982 international runs, including 12 centuries and 15 half-centuries at an average of 38.28 in 61 Tests, 339 runs in 17 ODIs and 169 runs in nine T20 matches.