Indian Cricket league or ICL promoted by Subash Chandra of the Essel Group is getting desperate and for sensible reasons, his shorter format of the game has taken a heavy beating at the ticket counters on the cricket stadium and an ever bigger hammering at the TRPs. One of the main reason for this is BCCI’s Indian Premier League or IPL. IPL with its entertainment masala package which incidentally features a shorter version of cricket has been a bit with the crowd, it even gave glycerine dripping saas-bahu serials a run for its money.

One of the most interesting aspects of the IPL was the introduction of cheerleaders; this was the first time in India that any sport featured hot and scantily clad cheerleaders who were flown in from across the world to add spice to the already glamorised event. The concept worked with the crowds absolutely loving it and the social organizations detesting it to the core. Anyways, not to be left behind, ICL has roped in none other than Bollywood item girl Rakhi Sawant to be the ‘Queen Cheerleader’.

ICL has unveiled the country’s first indigenous Indian Cheerleading Squad called ‘ICL Zeebras’. Rakhi Sawant has this to say about the cheerleading squad “Cheerleading is not just tamasha dance. It is a sport by itself. Until now it was the exclusive domain of the internationals. But now, thanks to ICL, this country will have an indigenous cheerleaders’ squad.” I’m not sure how many people in our country will agree with that, for most of us cheerleaders act as a wow factor. Rakhi Sawant is all excited about the desi cheerleading squad, she quipped ‘I can’t wait to don my Zeebra outfit and break into a jig every time Rohan Gavaskar or Raviraj Patil hits a six. I am sure, this will be one cheerleading squad that the country will remember for a long time to come.’

It seems that Rakhi has got too big for her shoes, this is what she had to say about Shahrukh Khan “Shahrukh is everyone’s favourite. (But) I cannot compare myself with him. He’s like the moon and I’m like a star. The moon is reachable, but stars aren’t”. She also acted as an ambassador of ICL inviting both Lalit Modi and Sharad Pawar to watch the ICL series.

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