Sanjay Manjrekar has never been shy of expressing his opinions, no matter how misguided they are. In the past, you could have forgiven his misguiding and chalked it up to a professional opinion but these days, the cricketer-turned-commentator has been sniffing a bit of misogynist glue on LIVE TV.
Fans of the sport who have been following the Indian Women’s Cricket Team through the course of this World Cup have been rather dismayed at his objectification of Richa Ghosh. You see, Manjrekar seems to have been rather taken by her smile than her cricketing abilities and he’s been making it a subject of his commentary.
Ghosh has a ‘great smile’, has become his trademark catchphrase while describing her cricketing abilities.
The standards of Indian commentators have always been on the side of mediocre with perpetual bad takes, no reliance on statistics but only FeElInGs and EmOtIoNs, Indian fans haven’t got much of a choice in the matter.
That said, Manjrekar’s sexism is abhorrent and undeniable and needs to be called out. You are a professional commentator with the responsibility of calling a game… a World Cup no less. And there are a million things to talk about Richa Ghosh; her wicket keeping, her abilities as a batter, none of which are remotely related to how the muscles in her cheeks function.
Reducing a professional cricketer representing her country at the biggest stage of them all to her smile is not just lazy but an insult to her abilities and the abilities of all women in the sport.