Is cheerleading culturally offensive?

CHEER GIRLS are hired to whip up excitement and keep up the spirits of the spectators and the match in Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). The game has gone all the more glitzy with ’cheerleaders’ from different countries, cheering for their team, every time a ball is hit beyond boundary line or on a fall of a wicket. However, there is another section of society, which feels that these skimpily clad women degrade the spirit of the game and hence, should be removed. Even Pakistani cricket player, Shahid Afridi, playing for Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad, feels that batsman can lose their concentration, distracted by the cheerleaders. Although there are some predictable criticisms from country's moral police, so far the extent of protest seems remarkably subdued in a tradition-bound nation.

Just as any anything else, cheerleading has quite a history behind it. The history of organized cheerleading started in 1898. The University of Minnesota was having a pitiful football season. Everyone agreed that something had to be done and soon a meeting was called of all University of Minnesota students and faculty before the game with Madison Wisconsin. One of the University's professors presented a brilliant scientific thesis on fan support. He stated that the collective stimuli of several hundred students focused on sending positive energy in the team's direction would help the team win. The game came and went, the cheer didn't work. The team lost. It just didn't roll off of the tongue the right way. Something different had to be done. This is where Jack Campbell, a then first-year medical student, stepped in and he became the first ever cheerleader. Someone needs to lead the yells with organized cheering, he explained. And there needed to be variety so, the next game, Campbell led the crowd in a cheer that marked history. Thus, cheerleading in the United States was born. Cheerleading, believe it or not, was dominated by men in its early years. However, when large numbers of young men went off to fight in World War II, the tables turned. More than 90 percent of cheerleaders were female from that point on. (Fecteau 18)

The introduction of American style cheerleading seems inevitable as cricket is acquiring the same momentum as American football. Sure it was once a game where every cover drive or a leg glance was applauded by the wise men of the game and lesser people from the sidelines. The purists may feel offended that the game is cheered by women who do not know a bat from an umpire, but that is the nature of evolution. It is as much entertainment as it is a sport. As a ardent fan of the game I feel it is better to have a full house for a three - hour game of unbridled excitement rather have - empty stands stands for a five-day test match If cheerleaders can bring in more spectators, cricket will be the better for it. Although it may still offend the sensibilities of some, the changing trend of popular tastes suggests cheerleading is here to stay in India. Of course, like everything else it is bound to be Indianised, which might mean less skin than in the US.

(Ref: http://www.dreamquestsports.us/Cheer-History.htm )