Mandira Bedi says cricket panellists didn't like women hosting events in saree

Actress and former cricket presenter and commentator – Mandira Bedi recently talked about how she was not accepted by many cricket fraternities as a female host, at the beginning of her career.

Mandira, in a recent interview with the Pinkvilla, opened up about her experience in the cricket world and how ex-cricketers and panellists didn't like her because of the way she dressed.

She recalled, "Nobody accepted me to begin with, certainly not the people sitting on the panel. I'm friends with all the ex-cricketers now who I worked with back then as well but they didn't like that either. They didn't like that there was a woman wearing a saree, dressed up, talking cricket."

Mandira also shared how she was stared down and ignored by a lot of cricketers over her questions, which she asked for a layperson viewer to understand.

"I was there to represent the layperson who doesn't know every technicality of cricket, who does not know every nuance of cricket. I got stared down by a lot of the cricketers like- what's she even asking, why is she even asking that," added Mandira.

However, Mandira always had the support of the Sony channel, whom she was working for and they encouraged her to keep asking more questions and move forward.

Talking about the channel she said, "Sony said that we've chosen you with the reason we think you have what it takes to stay, so go ahead and be yourself and start enjoying yourself."

Mandira Bedi first turned into a cricket host and commentator during the 2003 and 2007 World Cups. She was amongst the few women commentators in cricket at that time.