Curtly Ambrose adds a new twist to R Ashwin saga, calls Manjrekar a 'wonderful cricketer'

Former West Indies speedster Curtly Ambrose has reacted to Sanjay Manjrekar's comments after the latter had said that he does not consider Team India's senior offie R Ashwin as one of the all-time greats to have played the game during a part of his analysis last week.

Meanwhile, Sir Curtly Ambrose has called Sanjay Manjrekar a 'wonderful cricketer'.

Curtly Ambrose reacts to Sanjay Manjrekar's comments on R Ashwin

"We all have our different opinions. We all look at greatness in different ways. Sanjay Manjrekar was a wonderful cricketer in his time. He has his opinion of that, we all have our views. But, how do you define greatness? That is a good question," said Curtly Ambrose while speaking to sports presenter Karishma Kotak on their YouTube channel titled 'The Curtly and Karishma Show'.

Sanjay Manjrekar's cricketing career

Sanjay Manjrekar had played for India from 1987 to 1996. In his nine-year career, the Mumbai batsman featured in 37 Tests and 74 One Day Internationals and amassed 2,043 and 1,994 in both formats. The ex-middle-order batsman was a part of the Indian squad that finished as the semifinalists in the 1996 World Cup.

The Sanjay Manjrekar-Ravichandran Ashwin saga

Last week, Sanjay Manjrekar during a part of his analysis had said that Ravichandran Ashwin is not one of the all-time greats as he does not boast of having registered a fifer in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand & Australia) countries. Meanwhile, the veteran cricket pundit justified the reason behind the same by saying Ashwin's spin bowling partner in Test cricket, Ravindra Jadeja has matched with the Tamil Nadu cricketer's bowling abilities.

"When people start talking about him as being one of the all-time greats of the game then I have a few problems. One basic problem I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA countries, Ashwin doesn't have a single five-wicket haul there," said Sanjay Manjrekar while speaking on the ESPNcricinfo programme ‘Runorder’.

"And the other thing when you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches that are suited to his kind of bowling is that in the last four years, Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking abilities. Then, interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. So that is my problem with accepting Ashwin as a real all-time great," the cricketer-turned-commentator/analyst added.