Kanishk Tharoor in The Guardian, London, on the preponderance, rather the monopoly of “white” cheer girls in the Indian Premier League:

“The choice made by IPL organisers in this regard suggests, first, the unsettling marketing conclusion that Indians really just want to see white skin. Second, and perhaps more troubling still, it suggests a quiet acquiescence to the view of the conservative elements of society that Indian women are somehow more sacred and less carnal than their western counterparts.

“Not for them the tight tops and bared thighs of IPL cheerleading. Just like the licentious foreign woman, the idea of the modest Indian woman is closer to fiction than truth. It is the kind of fantasy that animates attacks on girls who had the “audacity” to have a drink at a pub (as happend in Mangalore last year). It is an ideal that masks the sexual violence perpetrated against Indian women on a daily basis.”

Read the full article: Cheerleaders shame Indian cricket

Image: courtesy Satish Vijaykumar, via H. Natarajan