Where I’m from, cheerleading is a sport. All across the U.S. there are hundreds of thousands of cheerleaders ready to pep up and kick-start any event, starting from as young as around 5 years old. When we lived in San Diego, California and my daughter was six and seven she was a cheerleader for a Pop Warner football team, which consisted of little boys ages six to eight playing American football. During that time, she even competed once in a sports arena in front of 2,000 people and I can still picture her in her little uniform and pompoms cheering her little heart out as the equivalent of the team captain at the competition. She was damn cute and it was amazing to see how serious the sport was taken, even for girls as young as my daughter.
Cheerleaders aren’t commonplace in Spain, so for the past decade I had sort of forgotten about them. So you can imagine my surprise when I moved from Barcelona to Bangalore and discovered that cheerleaders and IPL cricket were like daal and rice – never without each other. How cool, I thought. Until I saw them. Although in normal cheerleading clothes, cheerleaders in India are generally anything but normal. And by normal I mean INDIAN. Except for a few rare occasions, Indian cheerleaders are not Indian at all, they are imported white girls! With a population of 1.2 billion people, presumably almost half of that number being women, why is India – the outsource king of the world – outsourcing a sport that they obviously like to watch and that makes them smile? My gut says it’s not because Indians can’t dance!
Now, to be perfectly honest, because I felt that they were only adding to the negative stereotype of white women in India, I was very anti-White Mischief for the better part of a year. That was until I saw them perform in person for the first time at this season’s first IPL RCB after-match party. When they came on stage I was judgmental and preparing to make fun of them to my mates. But then I realised that they were actually very sweet looking girls (yes, still sexy) and that they had just up’d the vibe of the party threefold with their peppy dance number.
A few days later I was chatting with an Indian buddy of mine about them and he was convinced that they were strippers and escorts brought here to cheer. Ho-ly COW! Seriously? I couldn’t believe my ears. I couldn’t believe he didn’t know the difference! If my sweet daughter keeps on dancing and cheering at university and later makes it onto the squad of a professional cricket team, would my friend seriously be thinking the same thing about her? To my ears, it was honestly crazy talk. It started me wondering, how many Indians actually believe that? And how could I help to shine a different light on these young women? I’d like people to see them for who they REALLY are inside instead of some made-up stereotype because they dance and wear a cheer uniform…so I went and had tea with them. These girls are smart, have huge hearts, warm personalities, volunteer their time to charity and can dance your socks off!
Melissa Burke is 26 years old and team captain. Born and raised her whole life in Cape Town, she’s studied dance since the age of five. She started with modern dance and learned quickly that she preferred to go it solo and not with a partner so she studied jazz and hip hop primarily as she grew up. After high school, Melissa went on to university to study psychology and organisational psychology and next year plans to return to complete her honours and start a career in child psychology because of her passion for helping the young. Melissa started cheering professionally back in 2006 with a pro-rugby team but it wasn’t until 2010 that she cheered in the world of cricket. She water skis, wake boards and last year took a course in meditation, which she continues to practice here in India – at first freaking out the other girls just a bit who’d walk in and unknowingly think something was wrong with Melissa, who appeared to be in a trance! “As team captain my top priority is keeping the girls together and safe. With everyone so far away from home, I want to make sure that everyone is happy.”
Nadine Theron is the youngest member of the team and quite a remarkable young woman. She speaks Afrikaans and comes from a small but very tight-knit family who hails from a town with a population of around 40,000 called Welkom in South Africa. At 20, she’s currently in her third year of college as a photography major, continuing her real-life photography experience here in India. With her equipment at hand everywhere she goes, Nadine told me that her favourite shot in India so far is of an older mother and daughter who started laughing as she snapped their photo and she treasures the shots because they hold so much character. At the age of four she started acrobatics training and is the only member of the RCB cheer team who does acrobatics, including front and back flips, to pump up the crowd at matches. Nadine holds her associate teachers certificate to teach acrobatics to children. “I come from a really small town where I live with my family and I want to see the world. This experience has been wonderful.”
Kaylé Koegelenberg is 22, from Windhoek, Namibia…the town where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pritt’s daughter was born. She’s lived in Cape Town for the past 13 years, has 2 brothers and 1 sister and speaks English, Afrikaans and Dutch. She’s been dancing since the age of five and has played so many sports, including hockey, that I couldn’t write them all down! After graduating with a degree in fashion design, Kaylé worked for three years at the South African equivalent to India’s Shoppers Stop but found that the cut-throat world of fashion in South Africa wasn’t her cup of tea. She’s now going back to her sporty roots and plans to be a group trainer and also teach children how to swim. This is her second year with White Mischief and says, “It was hard to get back to normal life in Cape Town last year and being back here again reminds me there really is more to life than the fast paced world we live in and I’m thankful for this experience.”
Daniella De Silva, AKA Danimal, is the team joker. She’s 21 and from Johannesburg but has being living in Cape Town for the past four years with her family. She’s a triplet along with her brother and sister but has a total of three brothers and two sisters with whom she Skypes and BBMs constantly. She started taking gymnastics classes at five and then modern dance classes at six, which she continued along with hip hop through high school. Although she studied and became a makeup artist and has won awards for it in South Africa, Daniella’s real passion is acting and she will stay back in India and move to Mumbai after IPL is done. She hopes to make it big in Bollywood one day and work alongside Shahrukh Khan. In Hindi, she’s learned to count up to 23 so far, and is picking up the language quite quickly with a zealous and fun passion for pronunciation! “India feels like my home away from home…and honestly I never want to go home to South Africa. Here I’m always happy to smile for the cameras.”
Back home most of the girls are involved in at least one, if not more, charity organisations. Melissa helps build new schools and improve the infrastructure in townships (slums) and hopes to work with premature babies as a kangaroo therapist. Kaylé believes in giving her time, not money, and donates her time to underprivileged children’s homes. She’s now going through orientation and background checks in order to spend MORE time with those kids teaching them to play hockey, although she admits that struggling to generate funds to buy one hockey stick for each kid is a challenge.
Here in India, although the girls do have official public relations obligations, one thing that touched me the most about them was the activities that they schedule into their own free time, away from the cameras and the limelight. In Kolkata they spent time at Mother Teresa’s Mother House charity where they all felt in awe of the impact she’s had on the world. They also visited and donated their own time to an orphanage, which they all said left a lasting impression on them and has touched them more than any other experience to date in India.
No one likes to be falsely labelled or judged. Sadly, I did it before I heard how ridiculous I must have sounded when I heard my buddy make his outlandish claims about women he’s never met. Thank goodness my “fight for the underdog” and “women’s equality” gene kicked in because if not I would have never spent a fun afternoon with Melissa, Nadine, Kaylé and Daniella – who for me were ambassadors for all of the white cheerleaders in India. These girls adore India, respect and are friends with the players and their wives and girlfriends, have a good head on their shoulders and dance their hearts out cheering for our one common goal – an IPL victory!
XOXO Angela
ipl is capitalism at work…who ever looks good and cheers the crowds arousal through sexy numbers wins. i guess white gals are doing it best
Nooooo that is not correct but sadly that is what is true 🙁
My guess is that white cheerleaders seem more authentic, just like middle eastern or turkish belly dancers seem more authentic than white ones…
and Angela as a young (white) woman who has lived and traveled extensively in India I know exactly where you are coming. However it doesn’t help that they are called ‘White Mischief’. It sounds like a porno directed at any male non-caucasian audience… But even where I’m from in Australia, even though cheerleading is really big at car racing events, it is perceived as quite tacky. Although most of us would accept it as a sport, everyone knows that half the attraction of those events is so that men can perve… so it’s not just in India where cheerleaders face a lack of respect.
Hey Monica, thanks for commenting. I’m surprised about the car racing comment (that would be cheesey and for the boys only), as I know pro-Rugby teams use cheerleaders as well. Have you seen them? -Angela
do you have your daughters picture…..i am not asking in a creepy sort of way….only curious how she might be as she is half spanish and half northern european blond like you…..a north south mix
I don’t state my daughter’s name EVER nor do I post her picture on the blog… it’s a privacy and safety thing for her. Plus she’s 16 and would be embarrassed for the most part 🙂
You are spot on the stereotypical notion. Though its awkward knowing about your blog with that type of headline but its been a awesome read so far.
Anyway your doing a great job describing your experiences.
Thanks so much! I’m really so thrilled to have so many new people reading my blog following the success of the cheerleader article. It’s quite humbling actually.
With respect to my daughter, how do you know her?
Angela
Beautiful group of women…starting from the middle.
I can’t imagine Indian teams hiring men in their cheerleading squads to attract female spectators…Equal Protection be damned! lol
Hey thanks 🙂 And no…I don’t see male cheerleaders in the line up any time soon either but strangely they seem like they should be 🙂
besides exam dead date tmr,again u did the job 🙂 accessed the net to solve some doubt but the bookmarked page of urs did force me a curiosity…i wish this info (bout cheerleaders) is made available to most media-centric places so that the perception of ppl changes for these dignified-yet-bad-named good ladies, will be good for that STEREOTYPICAL CHANGE which atleast I wanna see in India for white DISPLAYS haha 😀
Thanks so much! I hope to see the flip side sometime soon too. I found it so interesting when their public relations manager told me that I am the first writer EVER to want to write a piece to showcase the girls this way. I think they’ve had some really negative experiences with newspapers and writers interviewing the girls and then editing and writing their articles in a way that really gives a negative impression of the girls. Not good 🙁 –ange
You are right, print and other media in india are so captivated in sensationalism that they rarely see an apple to be just an apple, they want it to be a jack fruit waiting to burst out. Its not the news but the hype that is created by the negativeness of anything that matters most.
Hey Gavi, I absolutely agree. Thanks for commenting 🙂 Ange
Thanks for this article and its really good that its turning up as a good search result with all kinds of search strings. I’ve met the White Mischief Girls at few IPL after parties that I’ve been to. You’re right, they’re pretty & sweet too. Its wonderful that you spent time with them and posted about them in a way that would enlighten many people.
Girls dancing at parties or high-society events in India is looked by an average Indian as “She’s poor, she needs money and she dances to entertain.” The cheer-leader concept never entered the country in a sporty way. And I’m sure many Indians would freak out if you tell them that cheerleading is a part of a School Curriculum in the Western Civilization. An educated Indian knows that Cheer Leading is itself a sport of a kind.
Hey there 🙂 Thanks so much for adding to the conversation here. You are 100% right that it is a part of the school system in the US, with HUGE budgets going towards cheerleading at many schools. I agree that the concept never really entered India until recently but it is certainly here now in some leagues and I don’t think the IPL does enough to ensure that the “brand quality” of the cheerleaders is high enough, their public relations team really should work to fix this. ((and yeah, last night I did a few searches in Google to see how it was positioned and was SO surprised myself. I did purposely write the title and name the photos to be SEO-friendly but wasn’t expecting such good results so quickly…cool that you noticed it!))
wonderful article
could’t agree less on rice and dal part
cheer leading is not a part of cricket and not belongs to gentleman’s game.
its just included in some t20 tournaments to add some glamour and entertain the crowd to sell t20.
KKR and PWI has domestic cheerleaders and interestingly Jacques Kallis’s sister and Mark Boucher’s cousin are also cheerleaders.
i din’t think cheer leading is recognised as sport.
You’re right…it is more of a T20 thing and since I have only been exposed to KPL (Karnataka Premier League) and IPL I generalised, glad you mentioned it. Yes, I love that a couple of teams have Indian cheerleaders 🙂 Thanks so much for the kind words, glad you liked it ==angela
Angela! you are awesome like your cheer leading blog!
It’s a culture thing. In most of the world, people are not used to someone other than the spectators, giving encouragement to the players when they do something right on the field. This has been norm ever since man played his first game 30,000 years ago. Then the americans did their thing and invented cheerleading which fit in beautifully in their culture. Now imagine how a novice from the rest of the world would feel if, while enjoying his game, passion all out on the table, he suddenly witnesses a bunch of pretty young women jumping around in interesting outfits. Now remember, his primal instincts are in full play,thanks to the sport. For a man of non american origin, in his primal state, a woman serves only one purpose. So he comes to the conclusion that cheerleaders are supposed to fulfil his sexual urges. And moreover, the raison-de-etre for cheerleading is that men perform better on the field when young fertile females show appreciation for their efforts. So i can guarantee you, it doesn’t matter if your cheerleader ‘athlete’ is mother teresa off the field, but when she’s on that platform, most men are appreciating things other than her dance diploma and her meditation skills. Hmmm… Maybe we could get the organizers of ipl to arrange for a pre-match orientation session and introduce us to this innocent non-sexual sport of cheerleading.
Hi, thanks for taking the time to add to the conversation and for injecting French into my blog! I don’t think that anyone ever claims that cheerleading is an “innocent non-sexual sport” after a certain age (it certainly is when little girls start, such as my daughter at 6 and 7) … but I think that the media should do a better job of showing the cheerleaders in either a more neutral or positive light. And the fans need to understand that they are real people just like anyone else … not escorts, etc. –angela
While I am not particularly bothered about judging the “moral fiber” of people who are just doing their job, I think you are doing exactly what you preach against, by implying escorts aren’t “real people”.
Could you do me a favour and copy where I say this please? You are the 2nd person to say something similar out of 200 comments (from all sources) and I just can’t figure out where you get that from??? In my article, I could just have easily replaced escort with construction worker or school teacher IF that is what my buddy had said, but he didn’t, so I wrote truthfully his words. I’m guessing you are a first-time reader because I don’t have prejudice or biases like you are accusing me of having…
“the fans need to understand that they are real people just like anyone else … not escorts, etc. –angela”
Not so much in the article, but in the comment I commented to.
Hmmmmm, it wasn’t intended in the way you took it. Again, you could easily replace the word escorts with stock brokers, construction workers, artists, etc… I have never said a bad word EVER about any profession on my blog as far as I know and I don’t have the feelings that you think I do from reading that comment 🙂 That I promise you. –angela
Good article. I have seen some video interviews of the cheerleaders by Indian interviewers (on youtube) and I was disappointed. There is a very negative vibe most of the time. They should be more respectful. Please tell your friend daniella to avoid trying to get into bollywood. Its a murky, dangerous place for a woman (especially one with no connections). Stories of exploitation are not uncommon, this not only applies to bollywood, but all movies industries in India.
Thanks, Nikhil. Yes, it is my understanding that even professional journalists tend to portray the girls with a negative vibe, which seems biased and unprofessional to me. I will pass on your advice to Daniella — I have a good friend in the Kannada film industry and he says the same thing as you. Have a happy Sunday 🙂 -A
True. Your blog does a tremendous job of undoing the media’s objectification of cheerleaders and giving indians the much needed introduction to the ‘woman’ behind the ‘pretty face on tv’. Popularize it, and you will have achieved your objective 🙂
You rock, thanks for that 🙂 If you like it and share it that helps a ton! -ange
Thanks for bringing this thing up and that too in the most real way possible. Indian men at large has never been respectful towards woman. We cannot change much of the things around in that part of human psychology, specially when it is inherited. But write ups like this helps ‘the person who reads it’ add a new dimension to his psyche. In the long run, that helps!
Thanks a ton. Finally we get to hear some words of respect from someone who was there with the Girls..
Really kind of you to say….glad you liked the article. I completely understand that because cheerleading culture doesn’t exist here in India that it’s normal it will be viewed differently and with mixed feelings here. It is just a pity that the girls suffer a bit for it. Cheers! angela
I read ur article and found it interesting. But I need to tell you something, have you wondered why only white female cheerleaders were hired, not Asian or black,because the ipl wants to capitalize on the age old indian man’s obsession with fair skin women.And although I dont mind it as Indians overwhemingly prefer their own and dont have any form of self hatred arising due to this unlike among certain blacks and asians, but knowing abt this obsession, and when you have exotic beautiful caucasian women cheering in sexy clothing, I dont think there is any other way an Indian man would view them apart from lust,attraction.
Whatsoever… We love you girls… Thou workin so hard .. deserve to Party. And all of you are kind, sweet, smart and adorable. Too sad that one has to be a celebrity in order to meet such kind hearts.
If it was upto me, I’d like to know and connect with ya all personally. Danimal… you rock m/… with all that charm and humour… a total steal!! I skype and BBM too ya know 😀
hehe, that made me smile 🙂 I will pass on your comment to the girls. Thanks for adding your comments –angela
Brilliant article
Photo is Cure Sexy…
As per my knowledge there was no Cheerleading in past cricket history or any Indian games.
20-20 was new concept and they want to make it more interesting bring some glamour.:) Cool it works. 🙂
You brought up many things; surely it will change people perspective. 🙂
Thanks, Arun 🙂
I speak sometimes and people go in awe like “he speaks so well, he’s well educated,he’s really smart” because I come from Africa too where there is no water, electricity and food, that’s all they know, what they see on the news, good job in throwing some light on this case, I met them too 2 weeks back, they are lovely and warm hearted girls. I think they deserve more appreciation and the team needs to take some accountability for that too.like rather than just showing them dance on tv, introduce them on tv with little side captions like; graduated here, studied this, currently doing this, loves this. It makes little indian girls who love cheerleading think it’s not a good thing or person to become and moreover, it’s the best way to kill the perceptions people have nowadays.
I couldn’t agree more 🙂 Ange
Hey Angela.. 🙂 Really glad you did this post.
I have noticed that a lot of people seem to have misconceptions about cheerleading as well. It’s obviously an alien concept to most Indians, and their opinions about it are understandable. Women who dance in public were previously the tawaifs- which I guess must be somewhat similar to the Japanese geisha. Sex was something that went hand in hand with such professions, and that is probably the immediate connect folks would have made. Of course, the concept of cheerleading as a sport should be fairly common for those of us who watch American sitcoms and Hollywood movies on a regular basis.
Really liked the way you’ve shown the girls as real people and intelligent women. It really helps to imagine them better. 🙂
PS: The search keywords that lead to your blog were pretty funny to me. 😀 😀
Thanks, M! It was a fun article to prepare for, very different from sitting with the paan guy or that time I learned to cook masala dosa 🙂 I like the example you gave, helps me better understand why there is such a negative aura surrounding cheerleading. I hadn’t heard of tawaifs before today.
PS: OMG, too funny right?! Have you tested it? I still find “cow naked man monkey butt” to be my personal favourite, hehe xo
Thanks for that article. As always once you humanize people it’s more difficult to apply blind, thoughtless stereotypes to them. Being an Indian male I realize how our attitudes towards women are pretty Neanderthal – and I think this is accentuated in the case of Western women. I’m glad you took the effort to find out if your friend’s opinion was based on fact or not. Btw, has he revised his opinions subsequent to your piece?
Thanks for your very nicely worded comment, well said. And no, my friend still holds the same opinion. I saw him this week and was amazed by it all still…he even claims to have seen a contract that had some dodgy wording in it about the girl’s responsibilities so he’s not changing his tune anytime soon 🙁
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really how stupid we become sometimes to judge things at the first instance. Thanks for pointing it out.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Personally, I am really embarrassed about how I judged but I wasn’t going to leave that out of the article. Cheers, angela
This is so typical…. Indian man grown up on a healthy dose of porn… the first thing he’s reminded of when he sees a Caucasian is…. well you guessed it. Some of my friends have experienced it first hand and inspite of all those passes made at them love India….
I get it all the time, unfortunately (have written about it quite a few times on my blog). And yes, despite all of the unwanted attention and rude advances, I adore living in Bangalore and I wouldn’t trade it for anywhere at the moment. BUT, for just a moment, I wish these guys would stop and imagine that we were their mother or sister or daughter or cousin…because it is really disrespectful to associate almost all white girls with porn or a fantasy so frequently at first sight before talking to us. Well, I suppose it is fine to imagine it but I wish they wouldn’t make us feel like WERE associated to simply by default. Thanks for taking the time to comment and add to the conversation 🙂 Cheers, angela
Indians can not dance? we have the best dancers in our country. Your an idiot if u think these girls can dance. They CAN NOT dance! The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders from Texas, and the Song Girls from California. Those girls can dance. IPL cheerleaders are a joke. Go look up American Cheerleading, its COMPLETELY different. and I say this as a cheerleader
Ummmm….thanks for commenting. Wow, first off, are you a woman? My whole point of the article was to encourage people not to pre-judge white cheerleaders and see the girls for who they really are inside. Second, I’m guessing you don’t follow my blog and are a first time reader because I have written SO MANY TIMES about how Indians (along with Brazilians) are the best natural dancers in the world. My dance comment was a JOKE which everyone else seems to get. Indians are wonderful dancers, the best! Last, since you seem to know so much about dance and cheerleading, you know that the girls are following a set choreography that they can’t divert from and that they are obviously not being choreographed by Americans so the complexity of the routines is set to a different standard. Where is your venom really pointed? I don’t think at my sarcastic joke…
I did look over your blog today, and while I would take back my idiot comment, these girls really can not dance. I understand what you are saying about breaking the stereotypes of white women, but these “dancers” are not the women to do it. There are lots of sweet Christian ballerinas that would break that stereotype. If these girls really were the dancers you have made them out to be, why are not they not teaching studio dance like other older established dancers? and yes I am a girl, and as much as I would love to stand up for other females calling these girls dancers would be making a mockery of my passion. Everyone has their opinion, but as a teenage girl from a preppy town in southern America, my opinion of these cheerleaders is that they are not real cheerleaders.
How many times have you seen White Mischief perform live? I’m assuming that’s why you feel like you can judge them? But more importantly, do you know the issues that white women deal with everyday in India and the reason I wrote this article? Just last week I personally had a new security guard in our building think I was a prostitute because I go out to dinner and parties dressed in a cocktail dress. It’s incredible to me that you are so narrow minded and believe that girls who have all been taking dance lessons since they were 5 or 6 can’t dance (or should be TEACHERS if they can, haha) but… that does fit into the stereotype of people from small southern towns in the bible belt. I’m so glad I was born in southern California and my parents brought me differently.
I was just stating my opinion. Y do u have a comment section if you don’t like that. I have seen them perform,not live, but their routines are not going to get more complex if I see them live. I said in my other comments that I don’t hate professional cheerleaders, the ones in Dallas and in Cali are great. IDC what you say, they CAN NOT dance. ask yourself this. if you knew how to dance well y would you go to India and cheer 4 a cricket team? if you were good you would cheer for an Rugby team, or teach. and I am SO glad you think I fit into the southern girl bible belt stereotype, because I LOVE being southern.
It’s a real shame that you can’t see the big picture and actually want to join the “conversation” at hand — which is breaking down injustice, stereotype and gender inequality issues in India. Your closed mind will not serve you well in the future but my guess is that you are too young to know that. I’ve dealt with people like you since I started this blog, who prefer to judge, make assumptions and pick ME apart rather than add value by commenting on the subject of an article and it is frustrating. Your idea that if someone has a hobby they love that they have to be “professional or teach in your own country” and not simply do something for fun (like exploring a foreign land and culture while doing it) is crazy. I’m an airplane pilot and have even taken helicopter lessons so does that mean I’m supposed to work as a pilot in the US? The topic of the article is clear: misconceptions. Please do contribute to that conversation if you wish…
Ma’am, I think cheerleaders in schools and colleges in the West ,like your daughter herself, take cheer-leading for their team as a matter of pride. I agree that cheerleaders in many sports play a very important role, keeping the team members’ morale levels high through the ups and downs in a match; however, in IPL, i think having cheer leading squads is unnecessary since they are usually positioned a hundred feet, if not more, from the centre of the pitch, along the boundaries and have barely any effect on the morale levels of the cricketer and i don’t feel anyone really notices their routines,only their attire ……..
getting to that part, i understand that tight outfits are required for cheerleaders who perform routines which require them to be tight so they aren’t a hindrance to the cheerleaders’ flexibility but you need to look at the fact that people in India tend to be a little orthodox regarding what is acceptable for a ‘respectable’ woman to wear. Anything less than that is usually frowned upon by a large section of society.
I feel these professionals deserve more recognition than they are getting here and i don’t believe they are going to make their presence felt, for the right reasons, here in India. They could consider leaving ipl and move on to wherever they and their profession are truly respected and where their contribution in a game is really felt by the players and public alike, instead of wasting their time hard work here.
All i have said here is what i feel…..you are free disagree…. i just wanted to make myself heard…. thank you for reading this comment…
God bless you
Prethive
Hi, thanks for adding to the conversation… and for the detailed comment. -Angela
LMFAO, Thanks you saved lot of my time. Apart from the above mentioned “esteemed etiquettes” of Indian culture, I need to remind you that this culture is screwed by Middle eastern mullahs and Victorian Brits for the past thousand years (for whom women are nothing more than a sex toy) OK !
Now, I’m an Indian and who like many other fellow Indians. many times feels to break the stereotype of what is Indian, there are many Indian youth now a days who are very much liberated. for example I love cheer leaders in US (and also exotic dancers though they are very different by profession), they dance so well and have such great figures that before them all bollywood heroines would look like dancing rats.
Also many Indian men suffer from premature ej***tion,they are so sensitive that just seeing a women’s cleavage or bare thighs wud break their control thresholds. That’s why the federal government should think about giving blinkers (like horse blinkers) to all sensitive Indian men and save Indian culture Amen
You are a great person Angela ma’am. Great job. Even I had wrong assumptions about these girls. I really never knew that these lovely girls are so lovely from their hearts. I don’t like the ogling they get from the bloody Indian male audience. I think these girls deserve much more respect than they are getting now. I really wish I could do something to honour these beautiful people. I thank you ma’am, from the bottom of my heart, for posting this article. I will remember you and this lovely article.
Thanks Shaun, that is very sweet of you to take the time to comment. Glad you see the girls in a new light. All my best, angela
Well ma’am, can you please tell me about the White Mischief organization and what does it do. And do these girls come to White Mischief’s employers for getting employed as cheerleaders or what ? I don’t know why but I feel, the way the word Mischief is written (with the red coloured ‘Mis’) hints something not very innocent. Please explain that to me if possible.
I actually have no idea why the team branded their cheer squad that way…but it was years ago and done for publicity purposes is my guess. The name has a fun, naughty tone but it doesn’t change who these girls are… Each team names their cheer squad something, although to be honest I hadn’t really paid much attention to it. Sorry I can’t be more help 🙁 I’ll ask the next time I see any of the team managers or girls and come back with a better reply. -angela
Alright Angela (I hope you don’t mind me calling you by your first name), thanks for the response. I just asked asked you about the organization because I couldn’t find out much about it by Google’ing (maybe its my fault). I really hope that these girls are not being treated like playthings there.
Yes, please call me Angela 🙂
You do know that “White Mischief” is the name of a brand of vodka in India, right? The IPL cheerleaders are sponsored by the brand, that’s why they all have “White Mischief” printed on their uniforms.
Here’s some web sites on White Mischief vodka:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Mischief_(Vodka)
http://www.unitedspirits.in/white-mischief-vodka.aspx
Hey Angela!
Nice to hear about all the girls here.
A big fan of Daniella and met her and one more girl Candice once after the match.
Tried to seach her on facebook and other social networking site.
I really would like to make friendship with her. Could you help me with getting her on facebook or make me talk to her.
It would be really great if you could do that for me please
Cheers!
Sam!
Hi Sam, the girls are reading the comments here so she will see it 🙂 Good luck, angela
Hey Angella!
Thanks for your response!
Hey Daniella….remember we met in the hotel lobby where you were staying in Hyderabad during the CLT20 and me and my friend also took pictures with you.
I really admire your dance and your gracefulness…..would certirnly want to have friendship with you if you are ok with you…if that is fine with you then here is my email ID and I would be glad to receive an email from a graceful dancer like you. My Email ID : [email protected]
Cheers!
Sam
Angela,
Request you to ask Daniella to read my post!
No response???
Hi Sam, I can’t speak for Daniella but I receive about 2-4 requests from people per day who wish to be “friends” either online or offline and i have a hard-set rule that I don’t connect to people who I don’t personally know. Perhaps she has the same rule… on top of that, the girls left 2 days ago. Have a great day, ange
lol really wanna know if you gals are real or not… too gorgeous!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 <3 <3
Hey, real women ARE gorgeous! 🙂 🙂
yeah… especially Melissa 😛 <3 heheheheeee 😀
hey angela!!!
i just needed a favour from u!!!
can i get d email id of Nadine Theron…if u cud arrange it??
No, sorry… but do leave a message here and I will tell her to read this. –angela
well i saw her for d first time yesterday in bengaluru stadium…nd i was attracted to her …. she was damn cute ….
i just wanted to b in touch wid her…
nd u can contact me on my email id- [email protected]
thnx
Thank you, it was an eye opener!
The sad part is . . still the major chunk believes the cheer leaders are here to please some rich owners. They have been stereotyped, and here in India its hard to wash off the stain.
Yes, too true. Especially when the teams themselves don’t do everything possible to help turn around that general opinion. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
Peace!
Keep writing, its always good to hear about India from a different perspective.
Cheers!!!
Thanks, Raul 🙂
hey i would like to have FRANSHIP with u 😛 pretty please with lotsa sugar on it? 🙂 <3 <3
Excellent article . This should be actually be going to each and everyone who thought that cheerleading is not “GOOD” . It’s just another profession / sport .
You should write more blogs / articles like this .
Wow, that is amazingly kind. Thanks so much 🙂 All my best to you, angela
Ur article changed my mind.m very much pleased with dem. Thanks a lot
Wooooo hooooo, I love to hear that! Thanks for making my morning… -angela
Fantastic write up.. Hope this message reaches wider audience and change their perception about the cheerleaders.. Good job..
🙂 thanks so much!
Who needs these expensive white cheerleaders, when you have so many Bollywood starlets easily available? These white girls are just for show, for the audience, for the perverted minds like that of your friend. You guys haven’t figured it out yet?
Hmmmmm I don’t see how actresses could replace them given the climate and debate surrounding cheerleaders. The damage to their reputations would certainly steer any serious actress away from it… they are PERFECT as team ambassadors, which is the role starlets play now in cricket in my opinion 🙂
Hey Angela i wanna be honest with you. Initially even i had a feeling that they could be strippers and escorts after hearing about the scamming, recent assault on an american, bribe related and betting incidents related to ipl. Its such a big event and so much money is being invested that it bounds you to think negatively. While so much money is being utilised in ipl, other sports are suffering. But anyway its off-topic.but it was really nice and great of you to have brought up this topic and clear our minds of such thoughts. I realized its more important to enjoy the sport thsn worry about such issues coz some people actually put their heart into the game. Being an indian national i thank you for this post.
hi Ani, thanks for taking the time to comment, I really do appreciate it. And I’m glad you were happily surprised about the actual topic … I used a spicy title to try and capture attention but the heart of the article is all about the girls and how lovely they are. It was a fun piece to research and write 🙂 All my best, angela
Initially, I thought you had unearthed some facts about some cheapos’ who brought in call girls to attract attention..
But this was a wonderful article and a ‘must read’ for all the stereotypical Indian Male who perceive a woman’s character based on her attireand profession.
your write-up here is like a virtual version of a ‘slut walk’ campaign, aimed at all those who are involved in such grossy comments of a fun filled profession.
As an aspiring writer myself, you are my inspiration. 🙂 🙂
And another thing to tell you, Ma’am.
I love your gesture of replying to each and every comment here, despite your multifarious engagements.
Awesome article, expecting more from you!
thanks and reg,
Ram
Thanks so much, Ram. You are the first person to comment on the fact that I do try to respond to everyone (unless someone is particularly douchy and it seems that they are just trying to get a rise out of me). but I try not to miss anyone because it’s so sweet of people to take the time to reach out to ME 🙂
Glad you liked the article, would love it if you shared it across your social media channels too so your friends will read it. Have a lovely Sunday, angela
I’ve already shared it. getting Mixed reviews, and debating on it.. Comment thread’s gonna be unending I guess.
There are a few things I wanna tell you ma’am. Will text you on your Facebook profile.
Thanks and bye 🙂
Thanks for that. And sure, or feel free to email me…my email address is on the About page 🙂 (( my FB page is https://www.facebook.com/Angela.Denise.Carson ))
cheerleading is a serious sport in the u.s.a. in fact on espn they telecast the annual cheerleading competition every year. particapants are school teams from all over the country. their acrobatic skill and co-ordination is better if not as good as most olympic gymnasts. it’s important that we see cheerleaders as extremely skilled sportsmen than just pretty distractions.
Yeah, night and day here, right? It won’t change anytime soon though but really it shouldn’t. I hope that perceptions change though, that is for sure! – angela
Lovely article. I think the opinion expressed by your friend is sadly what most people in India think of cheerleaders. Cheerleading in India did not grow in an organic fashion over decades and I honestly blame the IPL owners/organizers for introducing it into the sport more for a sudden shock of sexiness, than anything else.
The real question is whether IPL owners themselves have an appreciation for cheerleading. To expect the average cricket fan in India to appreciate the nuance of this sport, the art and finesse of these women, or their passion for dancing and cheerleading, is quite lofty.
I think it is REALLY amazing that these women are making the best of their time in India, be it social work, photography or just learning life lessons.
Thanks so much! I agree that change needs to start from within. IF it isn’t already happening, the public relations teams need to help improve the image and the managers/directors of each cricket franchise need to ensure that the people managing the girls keep their “real girl” reputation in mind at all times, which I think will sell better here in Indian anyway 🙂
Very well written information. It will be helpful to everyone who utilizes it, as well as yours truly :). Keep up the good work – looking forward to more posts.
Honestly (this is coming from a white man), MOST white women are far more loose and have less values than MOST Indian woman. Notice I said MOST here. Your friend may be stereotyping white girls. But this is a stereotype with some traction and truth to it!
Absolutely! I have said that time and again in many articles on my blog because it is plain and simple truth (though I don’t say it as insensitively as you have stated it here and never would — way to respect your mom and white women in general, guy!). BUT sadly that’s not what my friend was saying. And not what he insinuated. If only!
The article was very interesting. So true of the males’ attitudes towards women.
great beatifull lady
Another eye opener.. 🙂
I believe the actual problem is people here have not seen much around the world and the attitude is not just of males, I am sure a lot women think on the same lines. In a culture or a segregation, the sexes don’t think very differently. People have built stereotypes based on whatever little of Hollywood movies they see and they way they interpret them. Believing it would have been ideal to Invite a couple of those cheerleaders to answer these responses from their perspective.. 🙂
Quite simply put, it is the Indian obsession with fair skin – a concept which has been drilled into the Indian psyche from early childhood. Every single movie or TV show features fair complexioned leading men or women, in a country of predominantly darker toned people. This gets very deeply instilled into children and shapes their whole perception of beauty. The fairer the better. Look at any Indian matrimonial web site to see what I mean – invariably there is a description of the complexion of the candidate, with many falling into the generic “wheatish” category, which is essentially a euphemism for somewhere between fair and dark.
had anything untoward happened to those gals behind the scenes
Thank you for this article. I know very little about India, and even less about cricket, but I came across an IPL match on TV at 1a.m. on some obscure channel recently, and I found it very troubling that in India, they have cheerleading squads consisting only of white women who actually have WHITE Mischief printed on their uniforms! The racial connotations seemed staggering! I went on the web to find some more information on them, which led me to this article. It turns out that White Mischief is just the name of an Indian vodka brand which sponsors the cheerleaders, so there’s nothing racial about that. But it’s still troubling that the only cheerleaders they have in India are white women imported from outside. This article, as well as your blog posts on how white women are perceived in India, were informative about any racial connotations to it. I hope that any negative images or stereotypes that are held of white women in India aren’t too strong, and that the cheerleaders aren’t indicative of them.
Oh, and let me just add that I happened to find this other piece on the IPL cheerleaders which seems to express many of the same concerns about them that you do:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/27/cheerleaders-india-cricket-women
Thanks for sharing the link!! 🙂 🙂
just wanna find whos the cheerleader flying her kisses at 28 mins n 33 secs on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-V817GLak
In my opinion , cheerleaders are white because of India’s own conservative nature. In India you might have seen Women Doesn’t Wear a Bikini even in summer beach, so if people will see indians dance like that.. half of Indian Elder generation Crowd will protest , protest and protest more until IPL will be banned.. so its the one reason… the other is.. the really fit in the environment and I like it 😛 , and if i had a girlfriend like nadine, i would be in 7th heaven :-}
It will take time to change the perception. Till ipl I doubt many aware of the fact of cheerleader as such. To accept the fact will take time. With grappling provety dance was never a profession nor education till now. It was learnt out of interest. If we think mannequin create sexual violence then living gal with scantily dressed will always be considered as spice. Well for sometime.
The guy who said those cheerleaders are escorts should be condemned in my perspective. I think the problem is with you white girls.why do u adore India, why u come here leaving home. Your country is no less to india first understand that..Indians have not contributed nor invented anything big..Though indians behaved well with you..they always tries a way to victimise you girls in some manner…so dont fall…they dont understand liberalism rather see it in erotic way…
When I was studying in school..An anglo indian girl joined my class.she was brought up in the USA. She was completely a western cultured girl…I must say she was very fair beautiful tennager…my friends started to flirt with here by talking in a good kind.And I askd them why u are behavin like with her..he said she is free-moving girl if I expose myself in high styled fashion I can be able to court her and have my erotic experiences..I said,” if u like that girl love her but dont try to use her its wrong..its cheating”..he said” these girls are just for enjoyment and not fit for a family”..I was shocked to hear that what a bad opinion he has on western girls…
its not only a single indian most of the indians have the same thoughts…come to India as a tourist and dont try to work or stay and mingle with indians…because they dont respect white ladies whole heartedly as what u girls have for indians.This is the truth…
its very sad on you girls…beware
Wow..These girls are incredible. I think you are doing a great job by bringing into the lime light some facts about the lives of these wonderful women.In India there is a tendency to judge people on their skin colour and the way they dress. Your Indian friend is no exception to this. It is true that Indians assume white women to be promiscuous because Indians live in their own cobweb of narrow minded culture.Hollywood films add more to it.
I don’t think that Indians are mature enough to have cheerleaders in their sports. Only white women in cheer leading will add to the already existing narrow minded opinion of white women being promiscuous.
Its not only the Naked Truth about the IPL Cheerleaders, or any stereotypes about white women in India, I have seen that even Asian/Oriental girls get targeted with such stereotypes in India. Maybe its the small minded people who stereotypes them because of the bangkok red light district girls*. As much as I respect their tradition and Religion, I just think that most Indians are pretenders and deceivers!!
1st of all thanks to you & all d cheerleaders for making d IPL more interesting & exciting..its not about d colors & sexy looks,it’s more than d adventure…. so thank u again u have been doing a great job….(:-|