So finally I have a headline catchy enough to compel me to compose a new post for my dozing blog. For those who perhaps couldn't connect that well with the above Tagline, this one's straight from the TV series Heroes and I feel is a fitting one too for the current IPL situation. And if you are wondering what this current situation is, then either you are not amongst the papers these days or you are a Hindu loyalist (...wait...by that I mean "The Hindu"...). Hopefully by this line both aware and unaware ( ...they must have googled "cheerleaders + IPL" by now...) souls must be sharing my sympathies for the IPL Cheerleaders who have been labeled as hazardous to "Bhartiya Sanskriti".
The first voices were raised in Maharashtra, no not by those (...they are busy planning for the next Valentine's Day...), this time it's from the Govt. itself. The ministry is bound on grounding the gals. Apparently, they are convinced that the Cheerleaders have crossed all thresholds of vulgarity and their acts amount to obscenity. The Pseudo-concerned in other states are not far behind, and are slowly but sternly threatening the existence of the IPL "Item-Girls". Meanwhile the BCCI and the IPL have given signs that the Girls are here to stay and none of the fours or sixes would be left unCHEERed for.
Cheerleading came to India(in the IPL) as a part of the established T20 format. Its been there since T20 started and the organizers thus thought it to be normal enough to be included in the IPL's scheme of things. In fact it was there in the ICL too, but perhaps the eyes there were too few for the raised eyebrows to be counted. The cheer leading acts draw immediate parallels with the Stage shows and TV performances of the "Item-girls". If they can survive the test of tyranny so can the Washington Redskins (...Redskins who?...ask Vijay Malya...). Perhaps similar thoughts finally have prevailed, and there have been talks of having conditional performance licenses (like those for stage-shows) for cheerleaders, instead of banning them.
I wouldn't say that they are critical for IPL to run (...to that extent, the headline amounts to a bit of exaggeration...). As such the T20 format has enough in it to sustain interest without the "Boundary-Barbies" (...this I believe is the best synonym, I could think of...) but it will never be righteous to go down at the hands of the pseudo Moral-Brigade without fighting, specially when their hidden motive is to add to their political "Sanctity" and not the "Sanskriti".
