Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar pursued technical perfection like a man obsessed, but for a batsman hailed as the next Sunil Gavaskar, he ended up with a career that was largely unrealised. Though he never saw his father Vijay bat, those who did couldn't help commenting that the technical rectitude was inherited. His century against a four-prong West Indian pace attack at Bridgetown in 1988-89 was masterful, and he followed it up with a double and single century in Pakistan. But he only managed one other century - a laboured if match-saving effort in Zimbabwe's inaugural Test. He struggled to find his rhythm and form on bouncy pitches in Australia and South Africa, and never recaptured that poise and balance. Manjrekar made an unsuccessful attempt at reinventing himself as an opener in 1997, and faded out of the international scene. He kept wicket occasionally, and often regaled team-mates with his singing. He now works as a television commentator and media pundit.