Finally good sense has prevailed. The Orissa Cricket Association has decided to do away
with the idea of fielding cheer girls in the one-day international cricket match at Cuttack. And we, the worried lot
about an impending act of violation of women’s dignity in public arena, have reasons to be cheerful.
One considered it a disgrace to the solemnity of performing arts in particular and womanhood
in general when one came across the news of the Orissa Cricket Association toying with the idea of making the cheer girls
appear and perform in the traditional attire of Orissan dance forms such as Odissi and Sambalpuri. The conscientious among Oriya
intellectuals were horrified at this proposal. Voices of protest became louder by the day in the media.
It’s heartening that good sense has prevailed at last and the Orissa Cricket Association
has taken note of the writing on the wall. “Looking at the unnecessary
controversy, we have decided to stall the plan”, said the secretary of OCA.
So the cricket tournament at the Barabati Stadium would go ahead sans the cheer girls.
It is interesting that until a few years back, this concept of tastelessly clad female performers, euphemistically called
‘Cheer Leaders’ did not exist at all. South Africa used it for the first time in the T-20 World Cup as a means
of attracting more number of spectators; because they were not sure of the success of the tournament. It is strange that the
organisers of all cricket events thereafter piously continued to ape the system without ever thinking twice about its relevance.
The concept is all the more far-fetched in the socio-cultural milieu of India where the
idea of adding spices to sports events by making questionably clad dance-girls perform before the cheering crowds is difficult
to be accepted. Still organisers of cricket events elsewhere in the country have managed to go ahead with it on some pretext
of the other. This would also have been the case in Orissa had the organisers here not meddled with the sacred space of traditional
dances of the state.
It appears that someone in the Orissa Cricket Association innocuously thought it to be
an opportunity to showcase the significance of Odissi and Sambalpuri dances to millions of tele-viewers of the game
across the world. If this was the intention in the first place then one is tempted to term it as a misplaced idea. These are
basically not the forms of dance meant for mass consumption. May be Sambalpuri, being a folk form, caters to a wide spectrum
of dance lovers; but not to the kind of masses that congregate at a sports event. Besides we do not need the crutches provided
by a sports body to protect and promote the heritage of our dances.
As matters have turned out, we in Orissa
have finally set a precedent in doing away with the very concept of cheer girls (aka cheer leaders) of any kind in
the international cricket tournaments. It would be a pleasure if cultural activists in other states as well emulate such efforts
and succeed in stalling such ‘cheery’ appearances in future cricket events. Unless it is done the day may
not be far when spectators would find the game being played on the pitch as only secondary to the senseless gyrations of dancers
on the boundary line.
In
Orissa we have at least the satisfaction of preventing sports events being turned into dance festivals. We are sure that a
heavy turnout of cricket lovers at the Barabati Stadium is going to prove the irrelevance of cheer girls as crowd pullers.
