It is amazing to watch girls from small cities and villages get medals for the country: Tanya Purohit
The dawn of 21st century reinvigorated women’s cricket and wrote down a new beginning for Indian women in sports. The latter half of 2000s then witnessed the influx of women in sports broadcast. The baton was passed on from individuals like Mandira Bedi to Shibani Dandekar to Mayanti Langer and now women in the sports ecosystem are slowly getting a level playing ground that is opening doors for new opportunities. As the industry moves towards being more inclusive, personalities like Tanya Purohit, who hail from small towns – have seen this as an opportunity to fulfil their dreams. Tanya, who is currently an anchor for the second leg of IPL 2021 on the Star Sports Network, highlights her journey from Srinagar (Uttarakhand) to Mumbai and everything in between.
Excerpts from the interview:
What has been your experience discussing cricket and analysing players and teams in the IPL with the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan among others?
Since childhood, I have been watching cricket with my mother. Although Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel and Gautam Gambhir are quite young, I have been seeing them play since I was in school. I have always seen them from a fan’s eyes. I always wanted to watch a match in a stadium – and watch my favourite players – but the opportunity never arrived. Standing in a studio with my heroes and getting the opportunity to discuss cricket and ask them questions – which I always wanted to ask as a fan. Sometimes I have questions, which are simple in nature, so I ask Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan these questions off camera, to which they respond very nicely and take me through everything. It has been an amazing experience! Since the last IPL, we all have been spending a lot of time together due to the bio-bubble and I was fortunate enough to witness another side to these legends. I think seeing someone on-air is completely different from seeing them play on television. People say never meet your heroes, you would be disappointed most of the time, but this has not been the case for me. I am really happy that I got this chance. I am discussing cricket on-air and off-air, so it has been amazing!
Women have been grabbing a lot of attention in sports – we saw it recently at the Tokyo Olympics.
It is amazing to watch girls from small cities and villages get medals for the country and represent it, as I hail from a very small town in Uttarakhand – Srinagar, Garhwal. If I compare this situation to mine – 5-6 years ago – I don’t think any girl’s (from my school) parents would’ve believed her, if she told them she wants to be an anchor, that too a sports anchor. Their parents would’ve asked them several questions about how they will reach this position, but now things are different, they have a live example, they have seen my journey and they know there’s a girl from their region who is anchoring on Star Sports. Mine is a very small example, but if a girl from a small town goes on to win medals for India, then they are setting examples for young girls. In the initial stages of the Olympics there were a lot of conversation on how only women are winning medals. Things are changing in cricket and hockey as well. I once met Rani Rampal, where she spoke to me about how her coach helped her in convincing her family. And when Rani won multiple accolades for her performance, a lot of youngsters followed her. I think girls are setting examples and saying – this is what will happen if you give us opportunities. I don’t think it makes sense to discuss this in 2021 and I am happy for all the girls that are getting an opportunity and showcasing their talent.
Is there any special memory or a funny anecdote that you would like to share while discussing cricket in the studio?
When I started my stint at Star Sports with the Caribbean Premier League and due to Covid, we were recording shows from our homes. It was my first show with Star Sports, and it was happening over zoom calls, so I requested my internet provider to avoid network failures. One day, I was recording the post show with Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra. While the discussing something Gautam Gambhir left the session due to poor network connection and he was followed by Ashish Nehra. I had prepared questions for both of them, but when they left the show, my producer told me that I’m all alone and I had to manage the show all by myself. I was new at that time and to handle such a situation – now I find it funny – was scary. While I was talking on the show, I was secretly praying to God to not let my internet network fail. That day I realised that we have control over everything, expect technology.
Are you rooting for any team in the IPL? What do you feel are the chances of your team winning the title?
Delhi Capitals! I support them fully. In fact, I host their show – Yeh Hai Nayi Dilli – as well. I was pretty upset when we were unable to win the IPL 2020 Final – it was not a good day for us. I really like the team’s form and they have done exceptionally well in the first leg. I was upset when Shreyas Iyer got injured and was unable to play for the Capitals. Similarly, R Ashwin also unavailable during that point in time. The way Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada have played, I am sure Delhi Capitals will win. No, I know they will win.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
