T20 Cricket and The Fiasco Called "Cheerleading"

Cricket is known as the gentleman's game or should I be saying "Was known as the gentleman's game?" Now before anyone gets me wrong, my usage of the past tense isn't because of the popularity of women's cricket; in fact if this would have been the reason, I would have been more than satisfied that in a male dominated world, we women are making our mark!

But sadly, this is not the cause to be! The actual cause is the concept of Cheer Leading which some highly revolutionised and forward thinking person has introduced to the sport.

"Revolution" and "Forward Thinking" is fine as long as it extends just to the sport, if it goes beyond the very realms of it, such a convoluted revolution is not needed at all.

As a fan I have been watching cricket for almost a decade and a half now; getting thorough entertainment watching the batsmen connect powerfully with the ball and the ball connect even more solidly against the fielders placed in the arena.

This newly imported shade of thought to the T20 version of the sport however  stymies me. Personally though, I don't really bother to take a look at the cheer leaders whenever they perform. What's the point? When the players themselves are giving me such a splendid fire cracker of a show, why the hell should I bother with the dance steps of the cheerleaders? It doesn't make any sense to me.

Another aspect about this newly featured program which I find really ridiculous is that the cheer leaders cheer not only when the batting team pelts runs at the bowling side but also when the bowling team takes wickets!

So who are they actually cheering for? Is this really muddling or am I getting actually maudlin due to continuous aging?

IPL!! How can I forget the esteemed IPL when we talk about T20? Recently the KKR team held a dance reality show so that it could select the best cheer leader to do the honours for its unit.

Currently, given the way their team's prognosis appears, I have an altruistic desire to pen down a mail to Mr. Khan pointing him towards the fact that, had he held a competition for the best cricket player at the gully level, his squad could have done better rather than a "Perfect Cheer Leader!"

Cheerleading essentially belongs to the American sports where it constitutes a major part of their sporting history and culture. The relevance and the connectivity to cheer leading by that community is on a far bigger magnitude than anywhere else; it's a part and parcel of their sporting life where distinguishing and separating the two is highly difficult!

Cricket, on the other hand is a game which is identified with sixes and fours; straight drives and cover drives; the Doosras and the Bouncers and so on and on...Shorter version or long, we don't need cheerleaders to make it tempting: Watching and praying that our team may score six runs off one ball is excruciatingly tantalising enough!!

And, moreover some things are better left the way they are; Copy- Pasting seems way to inadequate!!