Mandira Bedi Says Cricketers 'Stared Down' at Her During Pre-Match Shows

Actress-host Mandira Bedi has opened up about how many cricketers looked down on her when she would anchor pre-match shows at cricket tournaments. In a new interview, Mandira recalled being “stared down by a lot of cricketers".

She revealed that many of them would be like ‘what’s she even asking’ when she asked them questions.

In an interview with Pinkvilla, Mandira revealed that she was made to feel out of place. She also said that there were times when she even felt intimidated.

“I got stared down by a lot of the cricketers like, ‘what’s she even asking, why is she even asking that.’ They answered whatever they wanted to answer nothing connected to my question and that can be very very intimidating but I kind of was assured by the channel, that backed me and chose me from 150-200 women."

Mandira also spoke about how male players and panelists took a lot of time to accept her in a cricket niche circuit. She said, “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.

Nobody fed me any lines, nobody fed me any questions. I was there to represent the layperson who doesn’t know every technicality of cricket, who does not know every nuance of cricket."

The 49-year-old appeared as a TV anchor for ICC Cricket World Cups in the years 2003 and 2007, the Champions Trophies in the years 2004 and 2006, and the Indian Premier League Season 2. She was one of the first few women to have hosted cricket tournaments on Indian television.

Bedi married Raj Kaushal on 14 February 1999. It was announced on 27 January 2011 that the couple are expecting their first child. Bedi gave birth to a boy named Vir on 19 June 2011 at the Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai. In 2013, Bedi and her husband had applied for adopting a girl. On 28 July 2020, they adopted a 4-year old and named her Tara Bedi Kaushal