Sunday, May 03, 2009

The cheerleaders at the IPL

They are eye-catchers for sure & they get the crowd extremely excited by their wonderful expressions of happiness near the stands. I am talking about the cheerleaders at all the IPL games in the current tournament in South Africa!

Every time a batsman scores a sixer or hits a boundary in the IPL, the crowd erupts. That has always been the case with cricket, right? At least, the one-day international variety of cricket changed the involvement of the crowds immensely at cricket stadiums. But, what we are seeing in the IPL is new. Something, all of us had seen on television while glued to the NBA action every year - those games had extremely colourful cheerleaders with their pom-poms & going berserk every time a three-pointer or an aggressive basket was scored.

We see that translated, adapted & now extended to cricket. Right, into our own game! That has created ripples in our midst, simply because, whenever a four or a six is hit, we now have cheerleaders leading the crowd with the cheers for the respective teams that they are supporting.

I am not too sure if these girls actually understand the game in depth (no offence meant to the fairer sex!), but they have added immense colour to the way the fantastic game of cricket is celebrated. We now have dancing steps, pom-poms, mini skirts, sleeveless tops, songs, fast dance, tap dance, break dance, jumbo smiles and colour of various types to go with every smash hit to the fence by the batsmen, or, wickets taken by the bowler.

There are various types of cheerleaders too - the extremely vivacious, the pretty, the genuine beauties, dance experts, others who are there for sheer flamboyance & looks etc (am not getting into the details in public!). There was a commentator recently in one of the IPL matches who said that the batsmen were incentivised to hit the big shots towards the cheerleaders & getting the momentum in their favour! Now, that's called incentive, for sure!!

The whole thing may be an outcome of successful sports marketing (a field I'd love to be involved in)! And it has changed the way the game is being celebrated. More than anything, the IPL has combined fantastic marketing with the thrills of man's old celebration, dancing. And to get to do that in a global scale, in front of the whole world, in extremely regulated conditions (no obscenity allowed, technically!) has changed the crowd's involvement in the game. I wonder if this can be extended to badminton, hockey, or football...!

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