Sanjay Manjrekar Turns 55: Remembering India's Former Test Cricketer Who Has Donned Multiple Hats In Life

Former Test cricketer and one of the well known commentators in the international cricket arena, Sanjay Manjrekar, turns 55 today. On his 55th Birthday, greetings and wishes are pouring in for the popular cricket presenter from all corners of the world.

Former Test cricketer and one of the well known commentators in the international cricket arena, Sanjay Manjrekar, turns 55 today. On his 55th Birthday, greetings and wishes are pouring in for the popular cricket presenter from all corners of the world.

Sanjay Manjrekar, who many believe did not do justice to his potential with the bat in what could be summed up as a pretty up and down international career, has been enjoying a pretty successful stint as one of the leading voices of Indian cricket in the commentary box. A versatile personality, the former Test cricketer-turned politician is also known to be quite the avid singer, often entertaining his friends and fans by humming some evergreen Bollywood numbers and Bengali songs..

Mumbai often hailed as the powerhouse of domestic cricket has also been one the stable breeding grounds for producing many cricketing legends whose contribution in chartering the course of Indian cricket is noteworthy.. Right from Vijay Merchant to Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar to Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar to Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan to Ajinkya Rahane the list seems endless. Amidst this star studded list of batting behemoth and bowling greats, one often tends to forget cricketers from Mumbai who were good on their own merit but often got overshadowed and played second fiddle to their most illustrious counterparts at the highest level in the sport..

When the 'Little Master' Sunil Gavaskar was drawing close to his glittering international career, Indian cricket waited with baited breath as to who would carry forward the baton of Mumbai's glorious cricketing legacy.

Before the arrival of the 'Master Blaster' Sachin Tendulkar on the stage, the mid 80s saw a wristy strokemaker and fine technician with the willow rule the batting charts for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy and First Class cricket ..He was none other than Sanjay Manjrekar, the son of India's batting great Vijay Manjrekar. In the mid 80s, Sanjay Manjrekar along with Ravi Shastri became the poster boys of Mumbai cricket and soon formed part of a fairly strong Indian team which had the likes of Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Manoj Prabhakar, Kris Srikanth and Navjot Singh Sidhu. Also Watch: Amitabh Bachchan's 2-Month-Old Video Thanking Nanavati Hospital Doctors Goes Viral On Twitter

Considered one from the classical school of batting, Sanjay was hailed as a technically sound batsman,equipped with a tight defence and well organised technique.

Manjrekar first gave a glimpse of his batting pedigree in the Cooch Behar Trophy as a school boy between 1978 and 1982. His bat did all the talking in helping his side win the Vizzy Trophy and the RohintonBaria Trophy at the University level in 1985. A couple of healthy seasons for his state team Mumbai earned him a well deserved cap in 1987 against the West Indies

Manjrekar kick-started his Test career on quite a high as he scored a resilient 108 against a formidable West Indies pace attack comprising the fearsome pace battery of Malcolm Marshall,Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop in the Bridgetown.

His moment of reckoning under the sun came when he scored a staggering 569 runs in 4-match Test series against arch rivals Pakistan in 1989. A double ton at Lahore, twin half tons at Faisalabad and a valiant fourth innings century at Karachi summed up Manjrekar's stellar exploits with the bat. Manjrekar had a mediocre outing  with the bat on the quick pitches of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, but he came back with some notable scores in the home series against Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

In the Mohammad Azhar-led ODI side of the 90s, Sanjay in a rather short career, had a fairly decent run being part of a batting lineup which had stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja, Navjot Sidhu, Vinod Kambli, and the skipper Mohammad Azharuddin himself. Towards the latter half of the decade, the rise of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid meant Manjrekar had lost his place in both formats of the game to batsmen who were indeed more skillful with the willow and delivered more consistently with the bat.

In a decade-long Test career, Manjrekar represented India in 37 Tests and notched up 2043 runs at a decent average of 37.14. He scored four centuries and nine half tons.  Sanjay donned the Blue jersey for India in 74 ODIs and scored 1994 runs, laced with a solitary ton and 15-half centuries.Though his international career never quite took off, Manjrekar is considered one of Mumbai cricket's domestic stalwarts as he was a prolific run scorer in first class cricket for his state team, racking up over 10,252 runs at a staggering average of 55.11.