This 6 Gruesome Realities the cheerleaders in IPL Face Will Shock you !

Cheerleaders are an element of sport that was not familiar with cricket anywhere. Then, where did it have to start with, in India of course of all places, the Mecca of the sport in a manner of speaking. With the advent of IPL (Indian Premiere League), cheerleaders became a trending topic on the vines and to make things sour eventually, the ugly bunch of nails behind the beautiful portrait were discovered. 1. The Reddit AMA Tell-all Mouths began to gossip and debate rapidly when in an AMA-Ask Me Anything by Reddit, one of the cheerleaders anonymously confessed things the general public didn’t know about cheerleaders in IPL and the harassment they have had to face in their tenure. It is a given that the cheerleaders are given attention beyond just a celebratory troupe and it not of the complimentary kind. Not only are they constantly subjected to gawks and taunts, which is again a given, they are also made audience to lewd remarks and in a disgusting revelation still, the spectators chuck objects at them such as empty bottles and packets, all in the vicinity of the cops who are stationed near the boundary and steel barricade. The AMA reveals that ogling and harassment are a daily routine that these cheerleaders have to face. When asked about “how often do you get ogled on stadium while dancing (sic)” she said, “All the time. I hate it.” 2. The skin-color bias In the same AMA session, one of the cheerleaders, Monika, also revealed that there was a severe bias rampant through the conduction of the cheerleading business; there has been a strict inclination towards fair skinned, or rather Caucasian dancers in this year’s IPL. For those of you who might be wondering what the foreigner is raving on and cribbing about, no it is not that Caucasian women are being rated superior above dusky women, it is far messed up beyond that. Apparently, it is a policy that has been initiated now of late that there will not be any Indian women doing the dancing near the boundaries as it shows the “Bharatiya Nari” in a poor light. In fact, as Monika said, “Sadly, there’s nothing I can do about that. If I refuse I’d be breaking my contract and they’d replace me with another white girl anyway… I went into this contract as a dancer, [but I’m] finding that I’m treated more as a sex object…I enjoy what I do regardless. But I wouldn’t renew this contract for another year unless things changed”, confessing the direness of the situation. So, essentially, we are just not giving Indian women employment opportunities they are equally willing to shine at, we are putting up a ruse to supposedly defend the image of the Indian woman while regularly commoditizing that of women in general or that of Caucasian women, to be specific. Wow, just wow, at a loss for remarks at that really. 3. Improper housing and other facilities Overall, it has not been a good experience for these girls at all residing at a place far away from their homeland, trying to earn a living out here. She regretted the fact by saying “If I were back in the US, I’d be shocked at the state of our toilets, changing rooms and on occasion our hotel rooms.” During the first two games, she saw cockroaches and a rat in the toilet. “We realized our manager for that trip had been skimping us and pocketing the money he was saving on a cheaper hotel. Now they’re more like 3-star. Perfectly comfortable but not over the top,” she said. She also revealed the state of their living, no suitable costumes, and the hotels are worse. As compared to the lump sum received, she revealed only a small amount is being spent on them, majority being pocketed by the higher officials. A serious issue which we have been ignorant about is put forward nicely by Monika assuredly enlightening us about one of the things that you didn’t Coming from different backgrounds, the cheerleaders do not necessarily have to have interest in cricket or football. Most of them look into their job as a dancing contract. However, majorly they are looked upon as a ‘sex object’, which they are well aware of. Interestingly, the AMA unfolds another truth about the things that you didn’t know about IPL cheerleaders. “No, they ignore us for the most part. We’re not allowed to talk to each other”, is what she has spoken trying to answer a question in the AMA. We get the feeling that this cold shouldering may have been decreed on the heels of the Gabriella Pasqualotto secret leak. 4. Lack of infrastructure Making things more frustrating for the cheerleaders in IPL is the fact that there is no proper infrastructure for them even from the dance routine aspect! Apparently, they are taught only two sequences of steps, pom pom’s in hand, one for the time when a boundary is hit the other for the sixer. There is no clearly defined sequence for even when the wicket drop so most of the time the dancers have to improvise dance routines for this on the go! So for the adroit audience at home, if you notice a bevy of women dancing out of sync at the boundary, now you know why! To add insult to injury the costumes for the cheerleaders in IPL, this year, has also been botched up due to general lack of competency and responsibility. The dress costumes and the occasionally frilled skimpy outfits were not made as per the requirements of the cheerleaders in IPL. The job for designing the costumes was supposedly given to the 13 year old daughter of one of the head honchos in the management. Allegedly. the dresses were so hideous that even the sponsors refused to sanction them in the first draft. However the efforts for betterment were so lackluster that even the sponsors gave up by the time the 3rd draft was prepared. 5. Misogynistic public image The cheerleaders were in turn stuck wearing outfits that were small and congested for their size and were itchy to begin with, while performing in front of thousands strong audience who were busy cat calling and jeering every time the poor souls came up to perform at their own chagrin. The frustrating part for them is that these aren’t just dancers recruited from a mall exhibition or academically challenged tarts who used to participate in college football or basketball games; some of the cheerleaders who answered the AMA on Reddit are academically sound women, including an Anthropology major graduate! Before we label them as spoilt brats picking at the scabs of a 3rd world event, maybe the question we should ask ourselves was that if any Indian parent would have even allowed their Anthropology degree wielding daughter to dance at such an event, even if dance was her passion, or if they would have had any problems with people objectifying them in front of national television. So to top off the hypocrisy cake, the cherry served the belief that these imported Caucasian women are sex objects fulfilling their roles by being the eye candy at a sporting event! 6. Identity revelation When Angela Carson of Cricket Country did a piece of cheerleaders in IPL, she found out to her dismay that most of the spectators were under the impression that these “white-skinned” women were strippers and party favors imported from overseas. The truth pill tasted bitter when Angela found out that most of these women are actually educated women; for example, Melissa Burke, is a psychology and organizational psychology student back at home and this is only her fulfilling her passion for dance, which she solidified by learning contemporary jazz and hip hop while cheerleading for school rugby teams. Take the example of Nadine Theron too; she is a photography major in her 3rd year who is taking her sojourn in India as a project for her photography studies, besides cheerleading. Still not shocked enough at the height of the injustice? Here’s the eye opener, these cheerleaders often take time off their schedule to carry out charitable work, not all of which is part of their contractual promo obligations. They spend considerable time at the Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Kolkata spending time and donating money for the cause while speaking in volumes about being enchanted by the humanitarian work that is being conducted there.

6. Identity revelation

Murtaza Rangwala

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