Dangal Games, a skill and tech based online gaming platform, has entered into a strategic alliance with Sanjay Manjrekar, who will be heading the advertising and marketing promotions for the company’s initiatives around the T20 ICC World Cup.
Commenting on this exclusive association, Sanjay Manjrekar said: “I am proud to be a part of Dangal Games’ exciting journey of Fantasy Cricket. The Online Gaming Market is a relatively new platform and it would be great to venture into this innovative medium of sporting that has been enabling the convenience of enjoying your favorite sport from the comfort of the couch. Dangal Games with its ever increasing fan base speaks volumes of the increasing craze for not just physical sporting but also virtual forms. It would be challenging but exciting to come up with innovative marketing initiatives with Dangal Games.”
Speaking on the partnership, Ankit Anand, Business head, Fantasy Sports, Dangal Games added: “Sanjay has inspired millions of Indian Cricket Fans by his spectacular performance across matches. He has definitely set high standards for the cricket fans. It would be a great pleasure to work with him towards making our initiatives around the T20 ICC World Cup a great success. His passion for the sport and years of knowledge would be vital elements that would add momentum to the entire drive dedicated to our valuable users. We believe in inspiring players to keep rising and keep gaming”.
Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance has announced the launch of a brand-new digital campaign- ‘#DependOnInsurance. The A series of five videos will be launched on regular intervals of 7-10 days on all social media handles of Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance during IPL season 2020.
Commenting on the digital campaign, Tarannum Hasib, Chief Distribution Officer, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance, said: “In these tough times of COVID-19 pandemic, IPL brings a sense of breather for masses. People are seeking solutions that are dependable; those that keep them secure and give a guarantee of protection. We wanted to create a campaign which reiterates that insurance is the most dependable solution at all times and Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance is the dependable insurance company which has been fulfilling promises of over 4.5 million customers. And cricket was the best analogy we could use, as there are so many lessons from the game that apply to real life. Dependence on insurance could be well understood and illustrated by a dependable player and that is why we have Sanjay Manjrekar as the face of our campaign.”
Added Parul Ohri, Creative Director, Mompresso: “The stories and storytelling lies at the heart of the series. For the storytelling, we couldn’t have found a better host than Sanjay Manjrekar with his thorough understanding of the game – both as a player and as a commentator As for the stories, it was a long and careful process to sift through thousands of memorable match moments and shortlist just five. But guided by Manjrekar and his wonderful insights of what goes on during those high-pressure situations, we found the perfect stories of dependable cricket legends who kept their promise to their team and country. While the stories are about cricket, they have an important life lesson about the need for dependability and is a spontaneous tie into the dependability of life insurance.”
Sanjay Manjrekar did not enjoy a very impressive career as a batsman, especially if you compare it with that of his colleague Sachin Tendulkar, who played alongside him. He promised a lot, in fact, in the early nineties. Manjrekar used to be called a ‘technically correct batsman’ by commentators at the time, but delivered a lot less. Before walking into the sunset, Manjrekar managed to play just 37 Test matches and 74 one-day games, registering a mediocre average score and strike rate. Basically he disappeared from international cricket without much noise.
However, in his new avatar as a cricket commentator, Manjrekar’s journey has been quite noisy. He has been getting a lot of attention, most of it negative. The trolling on social media has been rabid, he has often been called a ‘panvati’ commentator, his coarse voice and poor command over English has been dissed, some of the abuse he regularly receives on Twitter is not even printable. Things got worse during the ongoing World Cup when he called all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja a ‘bits and pieces’ player, the cricketer hit back and termed it as Manjrekar’s ‘verbal diarrohea’, and of course all hell broke loose for Manjrekar.
The question to be asked is this: Would the same abuse have come Tendulkar or Ganguly’s way if they had called someone a bits and pieces player? I suspect not, having been a low achiever in his own career, Manjrekar does not command much respect from cricket fans or current players. However, does this mean he cannot speak his mind while commentating, should he be expected to always say goody-goody things about current cricketers? Is he paid to be honest about his perceptions or to be politically correct at all times?
Now, I am not a fan of Manjrekar’s commentary either, I also believe he is a bit of a hypocrite. Case in point, when ex English cricketer and current commentator Michael Vaughan made fun of Manjrekar’s ‘bits and pieces’ remark, Manjrekar promptly blocked him on Twitter. This proves while the man is ready to dish out criticism to others, he isn’t cool about some of it coming his own way.
And yet I am a firm believer that he must be allowed to freely speak his mind on air and on social media, that’s his job. If a current cricketer doesn’t like what Manjrekar has to say about him, that cricketer should learn to take it on the chin or hit back hard, as indeed Jadeja did. If sports television networks and tournament organisers gag cricket commentators, it will take us back to the days of the boring, life-less radio commentary, when commentators only reported what was happening on the cricket field and not much else, that would be a really regressive step.
Incidentally, during the current cricket World Cup, Michael Holding, the ex-West Indies bowler and now commentator, was furious with the International Cricket Council for asking him to cut down on the criticism of umpires. He reportedly said in his reply that, ‘Commentators are being more and more compromised by controlling organisations to the point of censorship’. This is indeed a sad development, it will not just render cricket commentary impotent, it demolishes the idea of freedom of expression.
There is a general feeling this may have been Manjrekar’s final stint as a cricket commentator. If so, that would be terribly unfair. Sack him by all means if you believe he is a poor commentator, but don’t sack him for speaking his mind, that will set a disastrous precedent and strike terror into the hearts of other commentators, it will trigger the death of honest cricket commentary.
Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. Our readers would remember that he was a regular columnist in the early days of MxMIndia. Thakraney will now write a little more frequently for MxM. Khabardaar!
