WHEN A noodle-strap clad Mandira Bedi entered the frame of sports anchoring with the plaque of representing women cricket lovers, she ended up attracting more men than women followers of the game. For obvious reasons. But she was at the forefront of a trend of women anchoring sports shows and commenting on games on television. A lone Sonali Chander era on the tube is over.

Still, no thanks to Bedi though.

"She was there to add glamour to the show. In reality, glamour in sports reporting is zero. You have to ask the right questions to prove that you know your job," says STAR News sports anchor Mandira Sahni Fernandes. Her colleague, Aparna Kala, hosting Wah! Cricket Asia Cup on STAR News, agrees. "Glamour can't take you too far. I feel it should not."

A man's domain

In sports coverage, widely considered a man's domain, women do complain of not being taken seriously by their male colleagues, forever required to prove that they are really cut out for it.

In Colombo to cover the Asia Cup, Mandira Sahni says perhaps due to the dumbing down factor triggered by physical appeal, she faced the heat as a woman sports reporter. "Sports is a man's game after all, I was made to feel that. But once you prove yourself, you are in the fold," she says.

Well, almost.

"Here, I am in the same hotel as my male colleagues. But I just can't go to their rooms for a casual chat. Mind you, all male reporters do this which helps to gather information about sports and sportsmen generally," she says.

Jasleen Bhalla of Sahara Samay recounts, "Once I was to interview Ajay Jadeja. All male reporters barged into the changing room to speak to him. My cameraman too went in. But I could not." She says, "All men grow up following one sport or the other. But girls normally don't. So, I feel it is this conditioning that surfaces at the work place too."

Aparna adds, "In my office, when my male colleagues see me taking interest in any game, they look amused. But then, unlike other wives, I do not complain when my husband watches a cricket or a football match."

But what has brought most of these women to sports is "just fluke." Looking for a break, most of them ended up at the sports desk. "And then, you learn on the job," Jasleen says. Though all seem to be on the job now, the dumbing down has indeed happened. Jasleen clearly says she "is still learning." Then, why is she on Kaun Jitega Lanka. If not to add glamour, then what else? In the show, The Shaz and Waaz on STAR Sports, why are viewers asked to choose only from women fans' pictures to poll on who they would like to see talking to Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram?

The pioneers

Long before Mandira Bedi happened to cricket, NDTV's Sonali Chander and Misha Grewal talked sports. They were novelty indeed but convincing too. Sportsline on STAR Sports is more about sports stories than being focussed on the host Poonam Sharma. During Wimbledon, when we hear a female voice commentating, why do we take her seriously? During the last cricket World Cup, side by side with Ms. Bedi, Maria Gorretti and Sandhya Mridul, there was also a woman commentator. Why did we take her seriously? Isn't because it can work this way too? If you have spotted the Fair and Lovely advertisement on TV, don't you wonder why it is that the model had to look glamorous to sit next to Sunil Gavaskar?

Obviously, just good looks are not considered enough.