Sanjay Manjrekar's Response To R Ashwin's Tamil Meme On "All-Time Great" Comment

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar's comment that he doesn't consider off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as an all-time great was a "simple, straightforward" cricketing assessment that had created "a fuss", Manjrekar said on Tuesday. The cricketer-turned-commentator quote-tweeted a response by Ashwin to one of his tweets and wrote: "... my heart aches to see simple, straightforward, cricketing assessments kick up a fuss these days". After Manjrekar clarified the comments he made on a YouTube show regarding why he doesn't consider Ashwin an all-time great with a tweet on Sunday, Ashwin quote-tweeted Manjrekar's tweet with a meme from a Tamil film Aparachith.

Also Chaari, my heart aches to see simple, straightforward, cricketing assessments kick up a fuss these days https://t.co/7r7SNqpQq3

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 8, 2021

https://t.co/PFJavMfdIE pic.twitter.com/RbWnO9wYti

— Mask up and take your vaccine (@ashwinravi99) June 7, 2021

"'All-time great' is the highest praise & acknowledgement given to a cricketer. Cricketers like Don Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Virat etc are all time greats in my book. With due respect, Ashwin not quite there as an all-time great yet," Manjrekar had tweeted on Sunday. 

The tweet came after Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo in a YouTube show he has "a few problems" with Ashwin being termed an all-time great. 

"Ravichandran Ashwin, with due respect to him, I think he's a great guy at what he does, but when people start talking about him as one of the all-time greats, I have a few problems with that," Manjrekar had said. 

"One basic problem that I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia), the countries for batsmen and bowlers, places where Indians find themselves outside their comfort zone - it's amazing that he doesn't have a single five-wicket haul. Not one five-wicket haul in all these countries. 

"The other thing - you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches, when pitches are suited to his kind of bowling. But in the last four years, (Ravindra) Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking ability throughout a series. 

"So, Ashwin is not a guy who soars above the others. And interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. That is my problem with accepting Ashwin as an all-time great." 

Topics mentioned in this article

Ravichandran Ashwin Sanjay Manjrekar Cricket