They smile and jump in short skirts and tight tops in front of frenzied crowds — but this is cricket, not a Bollywood set or a Mumbai nightclub.
The cheerleaders who follow the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) teams have become a key part of the success of the world’s wealthiest cricket tournament that is to stage its final today.
Traditionally, when a batsman hits a six into the crowd, he lifts his bat to acknowledge the applause, but when Delhi Capitals star batsman Rishabh Pant bashes a ball into the stand, he unleashes an explosion of music, smoke and flying pom-poms.
Photo: AFP
The dancers — who come from Britain, Brazil, Canada, Russia, South Africa and other nations — keep grinning and kicking, even when temperatures hit 40°C.
When the IPL dancers started in 2008, some politicians wanted them banned because their skimpy outfits were considered un-Indian — and Royal Challengers Bangalore now have more soberly dressed, mixed male-female cheerleaders.
There are few complaints now.
The troupes follow the teams on a grueling criss-cross schedule across India for eight weeks each year. The players get luxury flights and hotels, while the women take the budget version.
“There are a lot of rules — don’t look at them, don’t smile at them,” English cheerleader Kelly Smith said of the dancers’ relations with the players.
“We help them win the games in a way — we should be able to meet and interact with them,” added the 24-year-old, one of a dozen women in the Delhi Capitals cheerleading team.
While a metal fence separates the women from fans, they still get trolled online, and the sexist jibes from the crowd can be daunting.
Charlie Chaeppela said that someone created a fake social media account to taunt her.
“They used a picture of me while I was cheerleading, they threatened me and asked me why I was in India,” she said.
More than 100 rapes per day are reported in India, according to the most recent official government statistics in 2016.
However, Chaeppela said that she still took the job because it was an “incredible opportunity.”
“My mom got me a book on India and on the Delhi page, it said it was the worst for women,” Chaeppela said. “But on second thought, if you look at it, it could happen anywhere in the world.”
From a distance, the women have to make do with giving nicknames such as “Muscle Russell” for West Indies star batsman Andre Russell, and they adore “our No. 4” — Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer.
However, knowing when to fire up the crowd has been a tough lesson for some.
“Someone in my podium who was here for the IPL last year knew what to do. Literally we had no idea about the game until our very first match here,” said Bobi Dorrington from England. “We’d sit there waiting for her to say if it’s a four or a six. We learned as we watched.”
The Chennai Super Kings are to play the Mumbai Indians today in the IPL final, after half centuries by Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson on Friday led Chennai to a convincing six-wicket victory over the Delhi Capitals.
An “outstanding” 17-year-old Chinese badminton player died of cardiac arrest after collapsing on court during a tournament in Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Zhang Zhijie was playing a match late Sunday against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The score was 11-11 in the first game when Zhang fell to the floor between points. The teenager received treatment at the venue and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but passed away later that night after repeated efforts to resuscitate him failed. “Medical conclusions ... indicated that the victim experienced sudden cardiac arrest,” Broto Happy, spokesman for
Taiwan will have two pairs vying for the women’s doubles at the Olympic Games’ tennis event in Paris as Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and her older sister Latisha Chan (詹詠然) officially clinched their third straight Olympic berth, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association said Thursday. According to the association, the International Tennis Federation confirmed Wednesday evening the Chan sisters’ qualification for the event, meaning they will join the duo of Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) to compete in the quadrennial sports jamboree. There are 16 entries in each doubles event. Hsieh, ranked No. 2 in the world on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
Taiwan’s men’s national basketball team is set to upgrade its depth in the paint after signing Brandon Gilbeck of the P.League+’s Formosa Dreamers to a naturalized player’s contract. The 27-year-old big man from the US landed in Taoyuan early on Monday, where he was welcomed by Chinese Taipei Basketball Association deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung. The two signed the deal, which still has to be approved by the Sports Administration and the Ministry of the Interior. Chang said he is confident that “the proceedings would go smoothly.” If approved, Gilbeck would become the third naturalized basketball player in Taiwan, following the New Taipei Kings’ Quincy
ONE GAME LEFT: ‘We 100 percent believe that this is the team,’ Kagiso Rabada said when asked if this team could end South Africa’s long World Cup drought A long, tortuous World Cup title drought is closer than ever to ending for South Africa after a nine-wicket win over first-time semi-finalist Afghanistan at the global T20 World Cup cricket tournament on Wednesday. Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the foundations for the lopsided victory with destructive opening bursts of pace bowling to have Afghanistan reeling at 20-4 in the fourth over, and eventually all out for a paltry 56. The South Africans lost just one wicket in pursuit of its first semi-final win at a global men’s limited-overs tournament, with Reeza Hendricks hitting a six and a four on consecutive