Srividya Palaparthi By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Long gone are the days when people believed women and sports don’t go hand in hand. While the female counterparts of the Indian cricket team are making their heads turn in their own stead, women are making their way into the gentlemen’s game through other avenues as well. Case in point, women cricket presenters who not only are great at their job of entertaining banter but are also adept with the details that go into the sport. Star Sports 1 Telugu now features two lovely ladies, Neha Chaudhari and Vindya Vishaka, to present the ICC World Cup matches. With a flair for the language and their energetic demeanour, they are drawing the sporting fans to the channel in leaps and bounds. Neha Chaudhari, a TV presenter and an athlete herself believe that this is an honour she had dreamt of, except in different circumstances. “ I wanted to represent India as an athlete. I wanted to wear the tricolour over my shoulders but as it happens, fate had other plans. Being able to present the World Cup is in my view another way to represent your country and their best features to the audience who are from your own native land,” says Neha who was a national champ in gymnastics. Meanwhile Vindya Vishaka, too, has her own share of experience in this field. “I have always been a person who loves sport and to apply that to my profession also is certainly fulfilling,” says Vindya who already presented two IPL seasons and two Pro-Kabaddi leagues before this gig. Although both Neha and Vindya have had experience in front of the camera as a presenter, anchor or reporter, presenting sports can be a different ball game. “We are the ones who have to interpret what is happening on the ground. We have to put two and two together and learn the nitty gritties of the game which a common audience might or might not know,” shares Neha. Vindya pitches in and says, “We were trained through workshops to understand the science of the game as well. We obviously know the game and the rules but we are also expected to know the stats, the records and the history of the matches and players that we are speaking about. It is only fair to be as informed as possible about the sport we are talking about.” They both also agree that keeping track of the numbers, dates, facts and figures is the hardest part of the gig. Meanwhile the best part of it is pretty satisfying as well. “There is no age, gender or region bar for those who enjoy our work. Children, elderly people, housewives – People of all backgrounds watch cricket in India and to have the presentation in Telugu makes them relate and understand the game better,” Vindya elaborates adding, “For those who aren’t extremely fluent in English, cricket was a visual game where they only followed the overs and the runs. But with commentary and presentation in Telugu, they will be able to understand more deeply and know the details of the game and the players.” While Telugu commentary and presentation itself is a fairly new concept for the conventional urban audience, women stepping in to do the same is also an eyebrow-raiser. Vindya however believes, “It is a great initiative to include women into the sporting arenas because that will break the stereotype that surrounds women and sports. It started with Mandira Bedi earlier and then Mayanti Langar turned heads and held her ground. These people paved way for all of us to step in without the stigma or the fear of entering a space dominated by men.” Not only that, but the job also gets a lot of attention from the public. The small town girl Neha who’s living the dream says, “My social media has been blowing up. There was an early period when there was a bit of negative feedback but soon, people started to warm up to the idea of women talking stats and figures about cricket. Even more so doing that in our native language only brings us closer to the audience.”

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