IPL is one of the biggest sporting events in the sports industry. Cheerleaders add glamor to the game with their smiling faces. They might look amazing with their cute dresses and pompom in their hands for the support of their teams. Recently, an IPL cheerleader confesses about the dirty secrets of IPL and you will be shocked to know them. An American cheerleader who graduated in anthropology revealed the other side of her profession. An IPL cheerleader who wishes to be anonymous participated in Reddit’s Ask Me Anything live chat session to reveal her experience. Below are the dirty secrets an IPL cheerleader revealed in the AMA session.
Q. Do players hit on you?
A. No, they ignore us for the most part. We’re not allowed to talk to each other.
Q. Is there a rule for an official party n gathering? Last week in Bangalore I did see an Australian cricketer talking with a bunch of cheerleaders for about 20-30 min at a bar/pub post-game.. a funny thing he refused to talk to almost every guy /fan approached him.
A. I know that one team of girls got to meet the players because they did a commercial together. Aside from that, I’ve been under the impression that all teams and all members couldn’t chat up the cheerleaders. But maybe it’s different for different teams.
Q. What is the funniest thing you ever saw a cricket fan doing in a stadium?
A. Honestly? I put a blank stare on for the most part when I’m facing the crowd. There’s just so many nasty men making kissy faces and taking my picture that I tend to just block it all out. Often I’ll lock eyes with some nice people that are smiling and those are the people I’ll focus on for most of the game. So I haven’t really seen many funny things. If someone genuinely made me laugh though, that would be a welcome thing.
Q. Are you a feminist? What are your thoughts on cheerleading being a means to objectify women as sexual objects and especially in India as a white relic.
A. I am a feminist, and I admit that I am bothered. When I danced in my home country I felt less like that. If you were to watch female dancers on Broadway, regardless of their outfits, you probably wouldn’t call them sexual objects. You’d call them a dancer. I went into this contract as a dancer, finding that I’m treated more as a sex object.
I try to be forgiving of human nature so I’m rolling with the punches. I also enjoy what I do regardless. But I wouldn’t renew this contract for another year unless things changed.
Q. How often do you get ogled in the stadium while dancing? And how do you feel when you get ogled so much?
A. All the time. I hate it.
Q. What is the biggest thing you hate about your job? A few spectators near me were shouting abusive and cheap words at the cheerleaders. How do you cope up with stuff like that?
A. I hate racism. Why is my team made up of 99 percent white girls? Why do Indians feel it’s ok to dress white girls up in skimpy outfits but they won’t let their fellow Indian women do it? It’s messed up. But for the most part, I can’t hear them. The music is loud enough and the accents are thick enough I’m mostly oblivious to the words. This doesn’t mean I can’t tell that there are some obvious slime-balls behind me. I try my best to ignore them. And I’ve made a personal rule for myself not to take pictures with fans unless they’re women or children. I’m not keen on becoming someone’s fap bate for the night.
Q. How did you went on entering IPL and becoming an IPL cheerleader?
A. I’m on a dance contract through an agency in Mumbai. I do background dancing for Bollywood music videos as well. (No, none of them has come out yet) I was thrown into the IPL gig because of my dance background.
Q. Any insider story you might be aware of related to Match-Fixing/late Night parties/Any sort of Harassment?
A. I’ve only heard rumors of fixed matched from people completely unrelated to IPL. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. We girls have had parties with just ourselves on a few occasions, but we’re not allowed to hang out with the cricketers.
Q. As we Indians are quite new to seeing cheerleaders, what are few things about cheerleading that you think we don’t know but should know about?
A. We’re not all sluts. You might get the odd one or two out there in the world, but the mass majority of cheerleaders I’ve worked with are perfectly respectable women. I’m currently not working with any sluts, and for that I’m grateful. They tend to cause drama.
Q. What kind of hotels do they provide? I assumed it was 5-star hotels.
A. The first two games were more like 1-star hotels. Cockroaches, I saw a rat and rat droppings, it was pretty bad. But we quickly spoke up and 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 stars. Perfectly comfortable but not over the top.
Q. What’s the alcohol situation like over there? Can you just buy a case of beer and bring it back to your hotel room to drink with your colleagues?
A. Some states are dry so you can’t bring alcohol back. But when the states aren’t dry, we have brought beer and vodka back to our rooms to celebrate.
Q. You think cricket is a game where cheerleading makes sense? Do you feel the flow of the game lends to cheerleading or does it feel forced?
A. Yeah, I feel cheerleading fits well. The 4s and 6s are the main reason for this, and the breaks give ample time to pump up the crowd and cheer for the team.
Q. It must be very exhausting to dance every 5 or 10 minutes in searing hot weather. What do you do to keep energy levels high? What’s your diet & training regimen like?
A. The heat gets annoying. I try to embrace it. The energy is just part of the job. We have to appear upbeat even if we’re exhausted. I’m a vegetarian, I try to stay away from too many fried foods and too much sugar, but I do enjoy chocolate and an occasional samosa.
Q. What’s your regimen like? Do you secretly wish that the batsmen of your team got out faster so that you wouldn’t have to dance so much?
A. No way! The games are always so much more fun if we’re winning. It’s much more boring to sit in a chair than it is to dance. I wasn’t a cricket fan before this, but I am now!
Q. When was the cricket ball closest to you? During a boundary I mean. Are there any experiences with the ball?
A. It’s never been really close, unfortunately. Sometimes I daydream about it coming right at me and I catch it like a badass before going up and dancing. I’d end the dance with a mic drop with my pom-poms and walk off the stage.
Q. As a fellow western woman living in India, not sure how I feel about white cheerleaders at the games. Why not Indian cheerleaders?
A. I agree. I love doing it, but I’d honestly prefer to see at least a mix of Indian women. 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.
Q. Where do you hail from? How has been your overall experience in India?
A. I’m not saying where I’m from to protect my identity. But I’m from a western country. So far I’ve been loving India. I might be a rare Westerner in that I love the chaos here. People are living, kids playing cricket in the streets, goats and cows wandering around, people selling fruits and veggies on corners, I love it. It beats the closed-off living you’ll find in major cities in the U.S. the U.K. or Australia.
Q. Did you ever have plans to study at University? What would you like to study if you got a chance?
A. I’m a University graduate. I studied anthropology.
Q. IPL or Superbowl?
A. IPL. I just don’t care for American football. It has always bored me.
Were you aware of these dirty secrets of IPL? Which one of the above surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
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