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.