IPL team Deccan Chargers' stake sale

The IPL bidding wars have begun. The first team on the block is Deccan Chargers with at least 10 firms, including a few media houses and some of the leading private equity funds in the race to acquire a majority stake in Hyderabad’s Deccan Chargers, the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team currently owned by the Deccan Chronicle group.

According to highly placed sources, KPMG, the advisors for Deccan Chronicle Group on the stake sale of Deccan Chargers, is currently in talks with at least 8-10 ‘interested parties’.

“There are a couple of leading media houses and some private equity funds (including some international funds) that have shown interest in Deccan Chargers. We should be closing the deal quickly,” a source close to the development said on conditions of anonymity.

The Hyderabad IPL cricket team has been on the block since last month after the Deccan Chronicle group acquired it earlier this year by paying $107 million (about Rs 502 crore) to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Deccan Chargers is the second IPL team hunting for investors after Rajasthan Royals, which represents Jaipur and won the maiden tournament, has been on the lookout, sources said.

It might be a bit tough to sell the stake in Deccan Chargers in times of financial turmoil in the economy, however, sources in KPMG say that IPL, as a television property, generated high viewership ratings consistently between April and June and therefore has proved to be an event that attracts both viewers and advertisers.

“The fact that IPL ratings beat the ratings of several leading entertainment channels confirms that the format worked. Investors and all interested parties believe that there is a lot of return value in owning an IPL team,” a source close to negotiations with the potential investors said.

Deccan Chargers was the most expensive IPL team after Mumbai and Bangalore and the Deccan Chronicle group paid $107 million over ten years to the BCCI. Later, Group M, the leading advertising agency group, acquired 20 per cent in it, sources said.

The team spent over $5.88 million (Rs 28 crore) acquiring 11 players (both domestic and international). Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds was one of the highest-paid IPL players, with a fee of $1,350,000, almost double Adam Gilchrist’s and over four times captain VVS Laxman’s earnings.

Bangla Players to Play in Indian Premier League (IPL )

The next Indian Premier League season is to begin on April 10, 2009 but things have started stirring up a bit already. The auction of IPL teams is to take place in January 2009, two months before the IPL twenty twenty 2009 season begins.

More players will be included from different regions. For example the BCCI has promised the Bangladesh Cricket Board to rope in more cricketers from the neighboring country into the lucrative Indian Premier League in its second season April next year.

IPL Chairman Lalit Modi said the Indian Cricket Board will help Bangladesh recover from the exodus of 13 top players to 'rebel' Indian Cricket League by also including a team from Bangladesh in the 2010 Champions Twenty20 League. It looks like that BCCI and politicians are already playing a tournment of one up man ship between Indian Premier League (IPL) and Indian Cricket League (ICL).

"We will definitely play an active role in helping them out. We are looking at adding a few Bangladesh players for the next IPL auction. And we are also looking at a team from Bangladesh participating in the Champions League from 2010 onwards," Modi told cricinfo website.

Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak is the only Bangladesh player currently in the IPL, signed up by Bangalore Royal Challengers for $50,000.

National Boards will receive a significant sum for participating in the Champions Twenty20 League, along with a separate participation fee for the domestic Twenty20 teams that are invited.

IPL Final

In the fascinating inaugural IPL final, on one side it will be the test of character of Shane Warne's tactics and MS Dhoni's calmness while on the other there will be an intriguing tussle between Shane Watson's willow and Makhaya Nitini's ball.

A keen cricketing contest will unfold at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday. At stake are Rs 5 crore kitty, the IPL champions tag and a place in the cricketing history.

Chennai Super Kings thumped Kings XI Punjab to register a resounding nine-wicket victory in the second semi-final of the IPL to set up Sunday title clash with Rajasthan Royals.

Super Kings' achieved the scanty target of 113 with consummate ease after losing just one-wicket. Southpaws' Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina slammed unbeaten half-centuries to guide their team into the IPL final.

Earlier on Friday, Rajasthan Royals made it to the IPL finals by drubbing Delhi Daredevils with a massive margin of 105 runs in a one-sided first IPL semi-final.

Both Shane Warne and MS Dhoni have been great team leaders. Warne has turned around a team of raw Indian cricketers and a few international players, into a match-winning combination, and Dhoni’s captaincy skills with the Indian team and his IPL team speak for themselves.

In the IPL though, Warne has stolen a march even as Dhoni has quietly slipped in. Suddenly, Chennai’s investment of Rs 6 crore in the dashing wicketkeeper-batsman seems to have been a good business strategy.

It is a different story that Team Chennai have lost twice to Team Jaipur in as many meetings but the manner in which Dhoni and Co upstaged Mohali on Saturday night proves that two of the best teams have made it to the final.

Warne was all confidence personified on the eve of the final. It didn’t matter to him which team he would be facing. ‘‘We sent out a strong message last night that we are peaking. We are saving the best for the final,’’ he remarked on Saturday afternoon. Warne’s team proved its mettle by thrashing Delhi Daredevils in the IPL semifinals as Rajasthan carried out a 105-run demolition job at the Wankhede on Friday night.

The only cause for concern in the RR is the absence of opener Graeme Smith, who has been ruled out of the final with a torn hamstring. The South African captain and Asnodkar have been amongst the most successful opening pair in the IPL. Though Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal is an able replacement, the new combo at the top could be an area that the opposition would be looking to make exploit.

The IPL Final is going to be a great climax to a fantastic IPL tournament which has captured the imagination of cricket lovers the world over.

The best among the best in IPL matches so far

Lot of statistics have been churned out in the IPL league matches so far and here are some of the best among them.

Highest Total Score in IPL League Matches
Shaun Marsh has the orange cap for being the leading run getter in IPL. The maximum runs in IPL League matches have been scored by Shaun Marsh of Kings XI Punjab. Shaun scored a total of 593 runs in ten league matches at an average of 74.12. He scored one century and five fifties in all. Shaun hit an amazing 56 fours and 25 sixes to become the highest scorer in IPL League matches.

Highest Runs in an Innings of IPL:

Brendon McCullum if Kolkata Knight Riders scored the highest runs in an innings. He scored 158 runs off 73 balls versus the Royal Challangers at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on Apr 18 , 2008. Brendon hit ten fours and thirteen sixes in his maiden century.

Highest Average Score in IPL:

Niraj Patel of Rajasthan Royals with the highest average of 101 tops the table of highest average score in IPL League Matches.

Highest Strike Rate in IPL:

Umar Gul of Kolkata Knight Riders lead the IPL table with the astounding strike rate of 205.26 closely followed by Brendon McCullum if Kolkata Knight Riders 204.35.

Maximum Hundreds in IPL Matches:

So far six players have a ton in the IPL mathces. This could change with the Semifinals and the finals yet to be played. Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shaun Marsh have scored a hundred each in IPL matches.

Maximum Fifties in IPL Matches:

Shaun Marsh of Kings XI Punjab and Gautam Ghambir of Delhi Daredevils have both scored five fifties each.

Maximum Sixes and Fours in IPL matches:

S. Jayasurya of Mumbai Indians has hit 57 fours and 31 sixes in IPL matches to hit the highest number of fours and sixes in IPL matches.

Best Bowling Figures in IPL Matches:

Sohail Tanvir of Rajasthan Royals took six wickets for 14 runs in 4 overs against Chennai Super Kings in Jaipur to return the best bowling figures in IPL matches so far.

Highest and Lowest Innings Total in IPL:

Chennai Super Kings posted the highest total by a team in IPL by scoring 240/5 in an innings against Kings XI Punjab at the PCA stadium , Mohali.

Chennai Super Kings posted the lowest score by an IPL team by scoring 55 runs while playing against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Highest Partnership in IPL :

Adam Gilchrist and VVS Laxman scored 155 runs while playing for Deccan Chargers against Mumbai Indians to record the highest partnership score in IPL.

Highest Batting Averages in IPL League

Here are the top ten amongst the highest batting averages in IPL League Matches

Player	Mat	Inns	Runs	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s
Niraj Patel	4	3	101	101	72	140.28	0	1	13	1
Simon Katich	2	2	96	96	72	133.33	0	1	11	2
Michael Hussey	4	3	168	84	101	166.34	1	0	12	11
Andrew Symonds	4	3	161	80.5	111	145.05	1	0	15	9
Luke Pomersbach	5	5	152	76	102	149.02	0	1	13	9
Shaun Marsh	10	10	593	74.12	433	136.95	1	5	56	25
Matthew Hayden	4	4	189	63	134	141.04	0	3	24	6
Brendon McCullum	4	4	188	62.67	92	204.35	1	0	13	15
Graeme Smith	10	10	416	52	342	121.64	0	3	49	8
Gautam Gambhir	13	13	523	43.58	366	142.9	0	5	66	8

IPL Trophy

The diamond-studded Indian Premier League (IPL) winner's trophy, encrusted with other precious gems like rubies and yellow and blue sapphires, was unveiled on Monday by IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi.

"It's a handcrafted and very expensive rotating trophy, the value of which, I will not reveal. It has been crafted by ORRA's design team," said Modi at the trophy unveiling function.

Refusing to disclose the value of the IPL trophy, Modi said, the winning team, who would be richer by $12,00,000, would get to keep the replica of the IPL trophy as the original one was a rotating trophy.

"With ORRA’s big reputation, it was an obvious choice for us to commission ORRA for creating a truly distinct and exquisite work of art, one befitting the stature and success of the IPL.

"Needless to say that the trophy that has been unveiled now, will definitely take pride of place in the trophy showcase of one of our franchises after the grand final on June 1," he said.

The IPL Trophy, which has a player in gold leafing, holding a bat adjacent to a map of the country with the names of the IPL teams engraved in it and symbolised by eight rubies, was crafted by 14 artisans, said chief designer Mona Mehta.

Sohaib Akhtar makes a memorable IPL debut.

It was worth the wait for Sohaib Akhtar Fans. Playing his first IPL match since the ban on him was lifted; Sohaib did what he does best, he ripped through the top order of Delhi Daredevils.

Shoaib Akhtar produced a magical three-over opening spell to demolish the Delhi Daredevils top-order, as Kolkata Knight Riders scripted a sensational 23-run win in the DLF-Indian Premier League encounter at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.

For Akhtar, who had to miss two matches on fitness grounds and was doubtful even for this tie, it was a memorable IPL debut. He began in spectacular fashion, sending back Delhi Daredevil skipper Virender Sehwag in the second ball of the opening over.

He removed Gautam Gambhir in his next over and dismissed A.B. de Villiers and Manoj Tiwary off successive balls in his third over to be on a hat-trick. Tillekeratne Dilshan, however, denied Akhtar a hat-trick.

Shukla polished off the tail with a haul of three of six in five balls. He was also on a hat-trick but Yomahesh denied him the feat.

An elated Ganguly said it was one of the fantastic victories in his career. “It was not easy to come back and win the match after setting such a small target on this pitch,” he said.

Earlier, Knight Riders posted a small total against a disciplined Daredevils attack.

The man of the match Sohaib Akhtar proved once again why he is one of the best pace bowler in the world. His IPL debut raises hopes for Kolkata team. They were able to defend a small total ,thanks to Akhtar.

Sachin Debuts in IPL

Sohaib Akhtar made a dream debut in IPL for the Kolkata team; can Sachin do the same for the Mumbai Indians?

Mumbai Indians currently ranked seventh in the IPL T20 points table. They desperately need to win if they want to stay in reckoning for the IPL semifinals.

Mumbai Indians will value Sachin Tendulkar’s presence more than his contribution with the bat or ball in Wednesday’s tie against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium. He is the team’s third captain in eight games; his match fitness is a grey area.

Tweny20 can be cruel on seniors depending on reputation to assert themselves, instead of winning a place on the basis of their utility to the team. Time has come that they prove themselves.

Chennai Super Kings bowlers will not allow Tendulkar the breathing space to get into groove in Wednesday’s tie at the Wankhede Stadium. Time has come to for his to claim his reputation.

The batting legend can be useful in a holding role at the crease, allowing the stroke players from opener Sanath Jayasuriya to number six Abhishek Nayar to push up the scoring rate.

Tendulkar, the skipper, making an entry into the IPL at the halfway stage is a different issue. T20 captaincy requires quick decision making to change the fortunes of a game.

Shaun Pollock slipped into that role smoothly and is best placed to carry the momentum forward, building on the experience of last four matches, winning three of them. The South African’s all-round ability helped him assume leadership in the bowling department and backed it up with valuable knocks lower down the order.

The players knew he was in control and responded to his way of getting things done. Now after a working relationship has been established, Mumbai Indians players are being asked to follow a new leader.

Tendulkar is getting used to the dynamics of T20 cricket from the dugout, watching the team come through a trial by fire under Pollock, winning home ties against Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals to develop into a side worthy of respect. Chennai Super Kings coach Kepler Wessels, asked about the prospect of facing Tendulkar in an away game, said: “Our team is looking forward to the game. It is a privilege playing against one of the game’s greats.”

Stressing on the value of captaincy in T20, the coach explained: “Captaincy plays a very important part in Twenty20 cricket. Sachin is a very experienced player and should be able to handle the situation.”

Its crunch time for Mumbai IPL team. Only time will tell if Sachin comes through in the Twenty Twenty format and makes his mark in the Indian Premier League (IPL)

Latest IPL T20 Points

IPLT20 Team rankings based on points on 12.5.2008

POINTS TABLE

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Points
IPL JAIPUR	8	6	2	12
IPL CHENNAI	9	6	3	12
IPL MOHALI	8	5	3	10
IPL DELHI	7	4	3	8
IPL KOLKATA	8	4	4	8
IPL MUMBAI	7	3	4	6
IPL HYDRABAD	9	2	7	4
IPL BANGLORE	8	2	6	4

Latest IPL T20 Points

IPLT20 Team rankings based on points on 5.5.2008

POINTS TABLE

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Points
IPL MOHALI	7	5	2	10
IPL JAIPUR	7	5	2	10
IPL CHENNAI	8	5	3	10
IPL DELHI	7	4	3	8
IPL MUMBAI	7	3	4	6
IPL KOLKATA	6	2	4	4
IPL HYDRABAD	7	2	5	4
IPL BANGLORE	7	2	5	4

Read about IPLT20 Cheerleader controversy>>>>

Sohaib Akhtar Not Fit

Sohaib Akhtar fans will have to wait a little longer before the paceman hits his stride in the IPL T20. It seems the pace man has some fitness problems.

Shoaib Akhtar will not be playing his first Indian Premier League (IPL) match as a Kolkata Knight Rider against Bangalore Royal Challengers on Thursday at Eden Gardens here due to fitness problem, said team coach John Buchanan.

"Shoaib needs to spend some more days with the team so that he can gel well with all the members. Besides I need to be more sure about his fitness before allowing him play for the team," team coach said on Wednesday.Shoaib Akhtar won't play Thursday's IPL match.

Lets hope we see Sohaib in action soon. Kolkata Knights need a rider like Sohaib to see them through to the semi finals.

$ 15 Million (Rs. 60 Crore) bid for Top IPL Player

IPL T20 Cricket players will probably become the highest paid players in any sport from the next season of IPL.

This year there was an upper limit of $5 million (Rs. 20 crore only) to how much the franchises could bid for a player. Poor Players, imagine their loss!

But now the players can take heart as from the next season The Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to scrap the $5 million cap on the players' salaries,a move that could see top IPL T20 cricketers earn as much as a whopping $15 million (Rs 61 crore approx).

I hope that will be enough for the poor guys to buy three square meals a day in a good five star luxry hotel.

The IPL had put a cap of $5 million (just over Rs 20 crore) for the franchises this year to prevent the very rich team owners from splurging too much.

But with the inaugural edition turning out to be a major success (this means IPL T20 is raking in the moolah like anything), the players are set to reap the rewards in the next season.

IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi sadi,"If we hadn't done that, I can tell you that our players would already be the highest-paid across any sport in the world".

"It will happen - if not today, then tomorrow. Because once the franchises have established themselves, it will be a free-for-all," he added.

Some leading Australian cricketers like Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee can expect a several-fold hike in their pays when they go back to play the next season after their short stints this time.

Indian ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who fetched the maximum bidding price of Rs 6 crore this season, reportedly told a senior Australian player last week that extraordinary contracts of up to $14-15 million were likely to be introduced by the next season.

Hayden confirmed that players were up for a financial windfall when the next season of the IPL gets underway.

"From what I have heard, some of the stuff (payments) this year could be just the tip of the iceberg," Hayden said.

The franchises' knew there was money to be made in IPL T20. That is why we saw some of the big names like Ambani's, Mallya, SRK, Wadias etc bid for teams. The response to IPL has been bigger and better than expected. The big sharks had smelt the blood from a distance and now the kill confirmed that their assessment was right .

IPL Twenty20 will become, probably the biggest money mint, in the world of sport. If the looters, err I mean IPL team franchisers share some of thier loot with their henchmen...errr I meant players, what is wrong with it. As long as the public is willing to watch and pay who can complain.

The already rich players will become richer, but I hope that the lesser known boys of IPL also get some of this money. Don't be surprised the next time you hear a parent say,"Son, why are you wasting your time with books? There is no future in education. Pick up the bat and ball and hit the pitch, someday you might just get to sit on the side bench of IPL 20 20.

First Double Century in Twenty20 Cricket

The first double century of Twenty20 cricket has been hit, by who else, an Indian. Many thought this could not be done in Twenty20 cricket. But Criket is one sport where records have been known to fall like nine pins.

Hitting a double ton in Twenty20 cricket, whether it is in Twenty Twenty World cup or IPL Twenty20 or your local tournament is a big achievement. In Twenty20 matches any score around 200 by the whole team can be a match winning total. Same score coming from a single player is an incredible feat.

28-year old Sagar Kulkarni became the first batsman in the world to hit a Double Hundred (200) in a Twenty20 match with an astonishing 219 off 56 deliveries in a league game in Singapore.

Sagar's heroics helped his Marina Club team to 368 for 3 off their 20 overs and a mammoth victory.

Batting at the other end was his team-mate in the Singapore national side Dharmichand who says, "Sagar's most amazing shot was a six over extra-cover which went out of the Kallang ground into the netball courts." The boundaries were 65 yards either side of the wicket.

In total Sagar cleared the ropes eighteen times; (18*6=108) he also hit 23 fours(23*4=92). This means he scored two hundred runs just off the boundries. He did not open the innings, he went in at one down at the end of the second over.

“I’m known for ones and twos in regular cricket but I can play shots all around too but even I was shocked by the way I batted. It’s a great feeling and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to achieve this feat, especially when nobody in world cricket has done it” says Sagar (a native of Pune and Level II ACC/ACA certified coach).

Currently a Business Development Manager in a software firm he has been living in Singapore since 2002. He was formerly a Maharashtra U-22 player.Congratulations Sagar, you have set a new target of scoring a double century for the highly overpaid IPL T20 players.

Latest IPL T20 Points

IPLT20 Team rankings based on points on 5.5.2008

POINTS TABLE

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Points
IPL JAIPUR	6	5	1	10
IPL DELHI	6	4	2	8
IPL MOHALI	6	4	2	8
IPL CHENNAI	6	4	2	8
IPL KOLKATA	6	2	4	4
IPL MUMBAI	6	2	4	4
IPL BANGLORE	6	2	4	4
IPL HYDRABAD	6	1	5	2

Sohaib Akhtar to Play IPL T20

IPL Twenty20 fans are in for a delight. The Rawalpindi express, Sohaib Akhtar has been cleared by PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) to play in the IPL. The fans will get to see some real pace bowling attack by Akhtar and the Kolkata Knight Riders need his charisma disparately. after losing four matches in a row.

The 32-year-old fast bowler was suspended over claims that he had repeatedly breached the PCB's code of conduct.

Sohaib Akhtar has had his bowling action question, faced ball-tampering charges and breached a team curfew.

Before the ban was imposed, he had been serving a two-year probation for attacking team-mate Mohammad Asif with a bat before last year's World Twenty20. (Watch out Bhajji and Ganguly, here comes the "Pindi express" who attacks both with the ball and the bat)

Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar has finally been allowed to play in the second half of this year's lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament.

A tribunal by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had banned him for five years, but that has now been suspended by a month awaiting a further hearing.

When Shoaib lost his appeal last Wednesday, the PCB said the ban only applied to matches under the governance of Pakistan.

But organizers of the lucrative IPL said they would also uphold the ban.

That has all changed now, after Shoaib's lawyers requested that the tribunal meet once more.

Farrukh Aftab, the head of the three-man panel, said if the player had missed out on the IPL it would have been an "additional penalty not prescribed by the disciplinary committee of the board."

The paceman had been signed to a $450,000 (euro291,111) contract by the Calcutta franchise in the IPL. The IPL Twenty20 domestic competition will finish its inaugural season on June 1.

Lalit Modi, commissioner of the IPL, said Shoaib could now play for Kolkata Knight Riders.

The Knight Riders had started strongly but have lost four matches on the trot and will hope Shoaib can add a cutting edge to their attack as they aim to secure a place in the semi-finals at the end of May.

Barkha Dutt calls Cheerleadrs White Trash

Barkha Dutt hits out at the cheerleader phenomenon in India and goes a bit further when she calls them white trash (taking journalistic liberties a step further). I thought of her as a journo with a cause since she was always raking up hot issues for debate, although never reaching any satisfactory conclusion.

But I can not blame her since Indian morality is a big issue with people in power and public domain. We do not like things which make us uncomfortable. We have not learnt the art of ignoring what we do not like. (turn that TV off, saves power and keeps you from becoming sick Barkha, we do that all the time when you are on)

Its not that we don't enjoy sex or looking at beautiful bodies,It's just that we don't like it to be so obvious as the cheerleaders and that too when they are corrupting our religion...errr I meant cricket (is there any difference).

Since I have quoted her out of context above I am kind of reproducing her article (hope she won't mind) with some comments.

In between lapping up the sixers and drooling over Shah rukh Khan(it is ok to drool over Indian trash) stomping about in the stands, what do you feel when you see the bevy of barely clad, big-breasted (which one? maybe I did not look that closely) blondes wiggling their bottoms at a billion people (everyone has a TV! I thought we were starving)? As they swirl and twirl their little red skirts and flash their wide, gummy smiles — draping their white skin around some two-bit toy boy from Bombay — do they ‘cheer’ you up or make you mildly sick? (you were watching, you tell us lady)

One of these evenings, as our imported cheer-givers rose in a collective whoop of manufactured joy, my 85-year-old uncle — otherwise staunchly liberal — frowned in faint disapproval. “What are these cheerleaders,” he asked scornfully, “do they think we live in an Archie comic?” (three cheers for uncle who still reads Archie comics)

I thought that was a pretty astute reading of why some of us (I, for one) may find the spectacle of choreographed sexuality crass and, frankly, trashy (I wonder when is the last time she watched a Hindi flick or Music channel!). Somehow it evokes images of fat men and giggly girls in the baseball fields of middle America ( no such image since i have no clue where middle America is). It makes you wonder: when you have already got the uniquely Indian mix of cinema and cricket, why on earth would you need to infuse this heady cocktail with some strange, foreign ingredient (has she noticed the stadiums filling up?)? Before you call me xenophobic (that's fear of the unknown for you initiates into big words), hang on a minute. This isn’t a moral plea for the so-called preservation of ‘Indian culture’. We all know how much hypocrisy underlines that awful and overused phrase. But yes, there is something about cricket’s new calendar girls that makes me wonder why a self-confident nation needs play to copycat to some air-headed ritual from the American heartland ( we are confident we can assimilate all kind of trash culture).

But even if I think that the cheerleaders are (there’s no polite way to say this) essentially white trash(not fair , foul foul), I find the attempt by sundry politicians to ban them (hey! aren't politicians allowed to dislike cheerleaders?)— or dress them up in clothes that cover their knees — farcical and indefensible.

Not for the first time, the furious debate over IPL’s cheerleaders is a conundrum(I don't know what that means, do you?) for all liberal thinkers. We do not want to endorse the Indian politician’s propensity to ban anything that invokes public debate. In principle, we won’t allow the government to mediate our morality(we will leave that to the journalists).

We know it’s ludicrous that ‘vulgarity’ was first debated in a city whose major industry is defined by young women who pout, strip, thrust and twist for hungry, lingering cameras, as their over-ambitious mothers befriend lecherous film producers(she does not like Bollywood). Bipasha Basu’s ‘Billo Rani’ is more aggressively sexual (not really, its all in the eys of the beholder) than the faceless bimbettes (those are professional cheerleaders) from America; Kareena Kapoor's sultry, swinging walk in the recent promos of Tashan has her wearing as short a skirt as the women with the wiggling bottoms; and ‘item number’ has now become an acceptable, even necessary, pass grade for any woman who wants to be measured on the oomph scale in Bollywood. Who we are to moan and groan about so-called vulgarity? Have we looked at ourselves recently?(have you!)

So, other than the fact that the cheerleaders are to Indian item girls what Kentucky Fried Chicken may be to Haldirams (we like our own masala better than some American, fast-food chain)(then how come KFC's are raking in the moolah?), we can hardly protest the pom-pom girls on grounds of ‘obscenity’. If we find their boogie-woogies offensive, by definition, we have to be as appalled by our homespun sexual athletes and their strutting performances. We can’t be a country that holds up Rakhi Sawant as an icon of womanhood (she has endorsements of approval from no less than Shobhaa De and Karan Johar)(who cares what these two junkies say) for fearlessly parading her sexuality as a means of social mobility, and then whine about some inconsequential troupe of babes called the Washington Redskins(they are famous world over, more than your Rakhi sawant or Shobha De). If steamy, sexy, sultry have become perfectly acceptable adjectives, even compliments in modern Indian syntax, how can we get so worked up over a bunch of girls in short red skirts? (thats what I keep saying, no one listens to me)

Indian sexuality — in films, advertisements, magazines, public discourse — is today as unapologetically raunchy as anywhere else in the world. And maybe that’s what’s at the heart of the cheerleaders debate — and it’s a point that we have all entirely missed. Is manufactured sexuality really a mark of liberation for women? Or have we just internalised all the worst clichés of post- feminist clap-trap in the name of emancipation? (I just knew women's emancipation had to pop up somehow)

In our attempt to break Indian women free from the conventional orthodoxy of right-wing moralists, have we just replaced one kind of stereotype with another? and with one that is as oppressive and unforgiving? (What was the issue again! weren't we talking about cheerleaders???)

While our sense of selves cannot be defined by a culture that seeks to imprison female sexuality, must our sense of modernity be borrowed from a country that still debates whether women should have the right to abortion? (they have pro choice people too, and whats more they are debating it and not banning stuff)

In her book, Female Chauvinist Pigs, American writer Ariel Levy first chronicled what she described as “women and the rise of raunch culture”. Here’s what her book describes as an average evening of American television. “I would turn on the television and find strippers in g-strings explaining how best to lap-dance a man to orgasm; I would flip the channel and see babes in tight tiny uniforms bouncing up and down on trampolines. Britney Spears was becoming increasingly popular and increasingly unclothed, and her undulating body became so familiar to me, I felt like we used to go out”.

Is Rakhi Sawant not India’s version of Britney Spears?(I'm sure Britney would object) Could this soon be how an evening of Indian television will look like? And will we then say: you’ve come a long way, baby.

Or will we just have turned full circle — to end up exactly where we started?
(damn, I have no clue where we started from. Do you? Was it Khjuraho temples by any chance?)


















P.S. All the bold italics are mine. No offense is meant to anyone, especially to Barkha, who just tried to mix liberalism with protectionism. She has a right to her opinion just as you have a right to your sight of cheerleaders. Cheers!