It’s not cricket

The ‘first lady of Indian cricket’, Mandira Bedi is miffed at not being included in the ongoing IPL 2008

The Indian Premier League (IPL)  boasts of star power, sexy cheerleaders and expensive promotions. But Mandira Bedi, known as ‘the first lady of Indian cricket’ is strangely missing from the scene, considering that she had shot to fame after hosting Extra Innings (SET MAX) in 2003 and continued hosting the cricket show till 2007.

When asked why she is not part of IPL 2008, Mandira says, “I think you should be asking the question to the Sony officials. I don’t know why they haven’t asked me to anchor the IPL season. I am very disappointed with this decision. I would have loved to be a part of it.”

Apparently, it’s the change in the programming strategy, due to the change in the game format, which has brought about her exclusion.

Sneha Rajani, business head, SET MAX says, “The short format of T20 cricket and the glamour of IPL is a complete entertainment package in itself, which has attracted lots of women viewers already. Currently, 40 per cent of IPL viewers are women. But we needed to cash in on the youth audience, so we roped in some young, fresh and good-looking anchors. We finalised on model Shiv Pandit, anchor Samir Kochhar and ex-cricketer Ajay Jadeja. Whatever Mandira established for us in 2003 created an impact. For the one-day matches we will obviously hire her again.”

a_ankit@dnaindia.net