Nobody accepted me: Mandira Bedi recalls getting snubbed by cricketers when she'd host pre-match shows

Actress Mandira Bedi recently recalled the tough times she faced when she first started off as a cricket host and commentator.

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New Delhi: Actress and former cricket host and commentator Mandira Bedi recently opened up on not feeling accepted by the cricket fraternity as a female host at the beginning of her career.

In a recent interview, she recalled that she got stared down by a lot of cricketers over her questions as she asked simple questions for a layperson viewer to understand the sport.

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Speaking about her experience, she told Pinkvilla, "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."

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However, the channel she was working for - Sony backed her and encouraged her to keep moving forward in her career path as a cricket host.

She added, "I was told whatever question comes to your mind at that particular point of time if you're thinking it ask it. I was given that freedom. Of course, 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, it was Sony, that backed me and chose me from 150-200 women. They 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."

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For the unversed, Mandira Bedi first turned a cricket host/commentator in 2003 and 2007 with the ICC World Cups. She was one of the few women commentators in cricket at the time.

On the personal front, Mandira lost her husband Raj Kaushal last year to a heart attack. She has two children Vir and Tara.