The organizers of sports events world over blindly believe that cheerleaders (particularly girls), dancing to hip-hop music, bring more colour to their events and probably increase the interest of the spectators if the action on the field gets a bit dull and boring, particularly in a cricket match.
Agreed that cheerleaders are very popular in the West and are a part and parcel of any sports event as it adds to the glamour during a basketball match or a baseball match or even in a mega event like Olympics as majority of the people, particularly international celebrities, go to such events just to make their presence felt and sock in the festival atmosphere more than to appreciate the sportspersons' achievements.
There is no doubt that cheerleaders are a big hit in other sports and may be in a Twenty20 tournament as well but in a match involving two nations it may not be that popular. A popular event management head rightly put it, a tournament of IPL status needs cheerleaders to attract maximum number of spectators, who may not be hard core cricket fans, but a One-Day match or a Test match needs only good cricket and any number of cheerleaders would not help.
Moreover, in a country like Sri Lanka or the West Indies, the fans themselves come fully prepared with drums and music organs to celebrate and have a frolic time supporting their teams and they can rest assured that any of these die-hard fans can out dance the cheerleaders, who only shake a leg when a wicket falls or a boundary or a six is scored, while the fans dance throughout the day without any rest or shelter from the scorching sun.
But cheerleaders' presence in an ODI match has not been appreciated by many as they think a contest between two countries is a serious business because the pride of the nation is at stake and majority of the fans come to cheer their respective teams and not watch scantily clad girls dancing to the beat of pop music.
Another reason Idea Cup organisers trying out cheerleaders is that the spectator interest has dropped alarmingly for a cricket match in Sri Lanka as hardly 500 people, on a given day, witnessed the just concluded Test series between India and Sri Lanka and so the Sri Lanka Cricket chief is trying to innovative ways to attract the crowd, who form the main resources during a cricket series.
For the first time Arjuna Ranatunga-led Sri Lankan Cricket board introduced the cheerleaders in the first ODI at Dambulla which did not have the same impact created during the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, despite a section of the Indian politicians threatening to disrupt such semi-nude dancing girls on Indian soil, which had made 'Kama Sutra' a worldwide concept.
It might be so in most of the cases when two club-level cricket teams are slugging it out in the middle but will they (cheerleaders) make any impact in a One-Day or a Test match between two nations remains to be seen.
Whatever may be the case, cheerleaders in cricket, is more of a luxury than a necessity and unlike in other sports, cricket will survive even without cheer leaders, who are more a distraction to a die hard fan of cricket.
