‘I enjoy IPL, it is a great feast of the short format’
Archana Vijaya is among the best-known TV anchors in India. She has been hosting the hugely popular IPL Extraaa Innings this year, besides having donned a new hat as the host a subsegment of the Extraaa Innings show, where she travels across the length and breadth of the country, looking for untold stories of cricketing legends, catching fans unawares and bringing some behind- thescene stories to viewers.
As the IPL 2017 circuit prepares for its final match slated for this Sunday, Vijaya is ready to host her last Extraa Innings show this season. Guardian 20 recently spoke to her about her journey as an anchor and cricket enthusiast.
Vijaya made her comeback on IPL Extraaa Innings T20 this year. She says, “This is meant to be the biggest season so far, I had no doubts in my mind that I should come back because my association with the IPL and Sony MAX has been so strong. For me it’s very exciting to be back on the 10th year celebrations of the IPL, which is a huge celebration of Bollywood, cricket and entertainment coming together. It is literally like coming back home once again after a year. We have tried to make it more exciting for the audiences, give them something different from what they have seen before.”
Vijaya finds her role in Extraaa Innings very exciting as the format of the show was changed this year. She says, “This year, I had to travel the length and breadth of the country and had to bring all the action that happens off the field, which included fun things like interviews with the cricketers, interacting with IPL fans on the streets, visiting cricketers’ families etc. I also hosted interesting segments such as ‘What’s Hot and What’s Not’. We wanted to get the fans involved because the entire campaign ’ 10 saal aapke naam’ is dedicated to the fans. It was very interesting as I was the one reaching out to the fans and bringing their joy, excitement and perspective to wrap around our show.”
Cricket, or course, is a male-dominated game, because there is hardly any news about the women’s cricket team in the country. When it comes to the IPL, the role of women is restricted to the cheerleader’s platform or the anchor’s chair. Talking about the challenges she faced as a female commentator, Vijaya says, “The biggest challenge I faced was I had to convince people to go beyond the way I look. While I may be hot and sexy, I had to make people believe I was talking sense. That in itself was a challenge. But I overcame that. I have had legends commend me for my work. Today, people ap- preciate my work on Extraaa Innings, apart from my looks. For me this is the real reward. We of course have to do our homework. We have a whole team that works very hard to give us statistics when we are presenting. We have to watch the matches closely during the season.”
But is she, like most Indians, obsessed with cricket? Vijaya says, “I have been presenting cricket through various tournaments for 10 years. I must definitely like the sport very much to be able to do it for 10 years. So yes, I do enjoy the game very much. I enjoy IPL because it is a great bonanza of the short format: it’s quick, it’s electrifying, it’s inclusive, and it’s the epitome of cricketainment, which is why I really enjoy this format of the game particularly.”
This season, Vijaya had her fingers crossed for the Delhi Daredevils. “I am from Kolkata, I lived in Mumbai for 13 years, and now I live in Delhi so it’s difficult to choose. But Kolkata and Mumbai have won the IPL twice each, so, I supported Delhi as they had an amazing lineup of batsmen” says Vijaya. Being on TV and around sportspersons necessitates high standards of physical fitness. “One thing that has helped me stay fit is I eat well,” Vijaya says, “I make sure that I have an average of 21 meals per week. As a piece of advice, I would ask people to take fitness as part of their daily routine.”
Talking about her future plans, Vijaya says, “One aim is to definitely to grow my brand. I launched my own entrepreneurial business, an ecommerce website called Labelkiss. com, and we are an offline and online retail brand. In a year we have branched out to offline retail business and I want to grow that. That’s one of my priorities for sure.”