Happy World Sports Journalism Day 2015!
As a women’s blog, we decided to celebrate the day by writing about the female sports journalists of India.
First, I tried to find some female sports journalists from our very own Pink City. Defeated, I moved towards Google help. But the search engine shocked me. When I searched ‘Female sport journalists in India’, it showed me results like ‘Hottest Female Sports Broadcasters’, ‘Sexiest Sports Reporters’, ‘Cute Sports Journalists’.
Thousands of talented girls get enrolled to media colleges yearly. What happens to them? Why Indian sports journalism is male dominant?
For women journalists, the Sports Beat continues to be non-welcoming sector and that is why, majority of Sports Editors in our nation are men. However, the two exceptions are ESPN and Sporting News, who hire bulk of female reporters and journalists in their sports departments. Again, why are they unnoticed by the mass?
I do not know whether to be happy or sad about this – but majority of women ‘journalist’ are given chance during our favorite IPL cricket matches. After all, who doesn’t want to see glamour on the ground? This glamour-quotient attached with the sports ultimately results into growing TRPs.
Nevertheless, do you think, calling these women-hosts as journalists is fair? Most of them are supermodels or TV actresses. Remember noodle-straps of Mandira Bedi? High on style, Archana Vijaya?
When we talk about women empowerment and promoting women in every field, we certainly didn’t mean to make them eye-candy!
Anyway, let’s get done with complaining and talk about few Indian female Sports Journalists I could get information about from Google:
- Mayanti Langer – sports journalist with ESPN. She has hosted many tournaments, which include 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.
- Kadambari Murali – she became a full-time sports journalist with the Asian Age (mid-1998-1999) and then moved to Indian Express. She even took care of Sports Desk of Hindustan Times.
- Mallika Bajaj – has worked with BBC, ABC Australia, Hindustan Times, MINT, NewsX, etc.
The list is small, I know. If you want to add some more names to the list, mention them in the comments below. Also, someone, please help us find some sports journalist from Jaipur. Please?