IPL and its Cheerleaders

I am eating a huge chocolate bar here as I write this post. Thats my way of celebrating the Mumbai Indians’ victory over Kolkata Knight Riders last night. Being a supporter of the Mumbai Ranji team, I never believed that I would be supporting a Mumbai team in a tournament which features Mumbai stars like Ramesh Powar and Wasim Jaffer playing for other teams. However, over the past month I have been eagerly following and supporting Mumbai Indians as they battle it out for a semi final spot after a string of defeats at the start of the season.

What exactly has made IPL (Indian Premier League) so popular? Its rival the Indian Cricket League wasn’t even half as popular. I wonder if anyone even remembers ICL team names let alone the ‘now-outcast’ ICL players. Like the ICL, IPL has made the tournament glamorous with fancy team names, Bollywood stars as team ambassadors, Team Anthems and more controversially, cheerleaders. However, the main reason why I like IPL is because in addition to all this showbiz it does indeed offer some great cricket action. The action packed T20 format and the large legion of foreign and local stars playing IPL has given us pretty exciting games.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the score for the first game. 240 in 20 overs!! 240 sounds like an ODI total not a T20 one! However, as the tournament progresses it is becoming increasingly clear that great bowlers like Warne and Pollock can win matches in any form of the game T20 being no exception. I think yesterday's demolition of Ganguly’s great batting line up is going to end all talk of IPL being a batting fest. One worrying statistic that IPL has thrown up is that, before most of the Aussies left for international duty. Australian and New Zealanders won most of the man of the match awards even though they are a tiny minority of all the players playing IPL. Looking at their IPL performance, I think we can definitely count on the Aussies to put up a strong challenge for the next T20 world title.

Interestingly, in addition to Ganguly, Gilchrist, Warne, Pollock and Yusf Pathan, the cheerleaders are grabbing headlines too. The foreign cheerleaders have come under fire for being scantily clad and it has been suggested that they perform Indian dances like ‘Bhangra’. I think cheerleaders shouldn’t be around in IPL but not for these reasons. No one forces anyone to look at the cheerleaders. IPL cheerleaders include one of the best squads in the world; the Bangalore Royal Challengers have hired Washington Redskins cheer (that the Bangalore side has nothing to cheer about is another story). If the cheerleaders are present, they should be allowed to have their own way and do what they do the best instead of asking them to perform ‘bhangra’. I wonder why these cheerleaders have been hired in the first place, I don’t think the crowd needs anyone to ask them to cheer, least of all in India when the game is cricket and the format T20. If getting the crowd to cheer is the objective, it is going to be achieved without these cheerleaders. Thus the reason why they shouldn’t be hired for IPL 2009 and later seasons is because they are unnecessary and not a part of the cricket tradition. Finally its the franchise which pays them, if they want to waste their money its their choice. It would be very disappointing if any match is disrupted over protests abou cheerleaders. I say forget the cheerleaders and get on with cricket, thats what IPL is about.

Sadly IPL pulled the plug on its free live internet streaming broadcast after the first few matches so now I have to rely on checking the scores the morning after the match or following the cricinfo text commentary but still I am going to support Mumbai Indians all the way. My prediction is that, Mumbai, Rajasthan, Delhi and Punjab will make it to the semis.