Friday, May 23, 2008 9:15 AM dcsiva

Race and the IPL

Allegations of racism in the IPL surface again. This time two black cheerleaders from Britain say that a marketing official tried to prevent them from performing because they're black. Here's rediffs coverage:

Newton and Sherinne Anderson, who alleged that they were asked to leave the Mohali ground without performing on April 19 because their "skin is too dark", addressed the press in Mumbai on Thursday along with Jorge Aldana, director of Fierce Performance Production, which employs the girls as dancers. Wizcraft has been hired by actress Preity Zinta for her Indian Premier League team, the Punjab Kings XI.

After being removed from the grounds, Newton told rediff.com that a Wizcraft employee used the highly derogatory term "***" as part of his explanation for why the girls couldn't perform. "Of course," she explained, "tears soon followed. I was in a state of shock." When asked if there were witnesses, both Newton and Anderson answered in the affirmative. Not only did fellow teammates see and hear the dispute, they said, but members of the crowd also overhead the offensive comments and saw them sobbing.

Scorpicity draws out the inconsistency involved in backing Harbhajan in Australia and yet also Shilpa Shetty in England while not backing these cheerleaders. Follow the link for an interesting set of comments.

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Comments

# re: Race and the IPL

Friday, May 23, 2008 9:06 PM by scorpicity

hey Thxs... apparently there has been recent developments of extortion and playing the racism card by the girls and their manager... so its become murky in all direction.

cheers, am adding you to my roll

# re: Race and the IPL

Saturday, May 24, 2008 1:29 PM by dcsiva

Thanks scorpicity. Yes, it is all very murky. As you pointed out the telling thing is the lack of support/outrage etc.

# re: Race and the IPL

Monday, May 26, 2008 10:53 AM by UTP

Well I think its an attack to get some media attention and some mud on the successful tournament....its a little harsh....the people have to keep the masses in consideration and there is a commercial reason involved....here....