Watching his national cricket side wallop a hapless England is quite enough to set the pulse of the average Indian male racing. So perhaps it's just as well that the Indian eleven's first troop of cheerleaders plan to eschew the skimpy outfits favoured by their Western peers for modesty-saving saris.

Determined to inject a little razzmatazz into England's one-day international with India at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on November 26, the host, the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA), has made the unprecedented decision to hire dancing girls to support the national team. Mindful, however, of the public outcry that erupted earlier this year when some regional sides flirted with fielding scantily clothed, American-style cheerleaders in an effort to boost crowds, the OCA is insisting that its recruits will be clad in nine yards of woven silk apiece.

Ashirbad Behera, the OCA secretary who is organising the cheerleaders-insaris show, said: "This is the first time a one-day international will feature cheering girls. But I will not have them dressing up in short skirts, as it would be against our culture and traditions. Our audience won't accept it."

Cheerleaders were unknown in Indian cricket until April this year when the Royal Challengers Bangalore drafted in the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders - together with their hotpants and bikini tops - from the US. The dancers supported the side as it competed in the newly formed Indian Premier League, a six-week contest that attracted the world's best players with bumper pay cheques.

However, India's establishment made no secret of its distaste. Ramchandra Guha, one of the country's leading historians, complained: "Why we always have to borrow the worst of the Western world is beyond me." He said that introducing US-style cheerleaders to India's cricket pitches risked "stoking the base, voyeuristic and sexual insecurities of the Indian male".

Whether India's cheerleaders-in-saris will be able to perform the high kicks beloved of their Western equivalents remains to be seen. But it does appear that not everyone has been bowled over by the novel dress code. One bemused Orissa local asked India's national news service: "Who would want to see cheerleaders in saris?" 

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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