Mandira Bedi didn’t just walk into sports broadcasting — she stormed into a male-dominated arena in 2003 and made herself unforgettable. Two decades later, her stint as a cricket presenter during major ICC tournaments remains iconic. But behind that confident screen presence was a woman quietly fighting judgment, exclusion, and intense public scrutiny.

In a recent interview with Zoom, the actor-turned-presenter opened up about her rocky debut in cricket broadcasting. “It was hard to begin with,” Mandira recalled, adding that as the first woman in the role, she was “under a lot of scrutiny.” While some praised her, many others dismissed her — both on and off the panel. “People will dislike you, people will have an opinion… People will hate you.”

Mandira revealed that her first week on the job was a disaster until the internal broadcasting team sat her down and reminded her why she was chosen. “We’ve auditioned a thousand women to get to you, so we know you have it in you,” they told her. That conversation flipped a switch. “Heaven and hell is in your head… Suddenly everything became, ‘Wow, who gets a chance to do this?’”

Despite online hate and being labelled a “bimbo” and “dummy,” Mandira powered through. She faced resistance from co-panelists, too. “They’d stare me down. I’d feel excluded,” she said, admitting it was her own colleagues who were the least welcoming. But once she found her groove, she stopped playing safe. “It’s live TV — if they didn’t answer my question, I’d ask it again. They had no choice but to respond.”

That defiance gradually won over critics, and the dynamics changed — both on the panel and with viewers. “Eventually, they realised I wasn’t going anywhere. And we ended up having a lot of fun.”

Mandira’s journey from being sidelined to leading the cricket chat remains a defining moment for women in Indian sports media. And even as the criticism rolled in, she stuck to her mantra: “I’m here, and I’m having fun.”