I love cricket both as a player and a spectator. T:20 as a concept and a highly successful experiment that is reaping rich rewards for the ICC, BCCI, Subash Chandra's Zee Group and the players and their respective boards. My question is something to do with the so called supplementary attractions-half-naked cheer-girls dancing to loud music, stunts by bikers and actors, music shows etc..

Cricket is a game that can sustain interest in the viewer on its own. If I wanted to see ridiculously costumed women dance I would as well watch a porn movie or go to a strip bar. Why do we need such unnecessary aping of the American concept of cheer leading, that has its roots in basketball and baseball tournaments.

The Hindustan Times has published an interview with some of the cheerleaders performing in the IPL, all of them feel insecure and are afraid that someone might harm them. They say everyone from a seventy year old grandpa to a 15 year old teenager makes lewd passes and comments at them.

The following is taken from the same article and are thoughts echoed by noted cricket historian Ramchandra Guha-"India’s leading socio-historian and writer, Ramchandra Guha, dubbed the phenomenon of cheerleaders despicable and degrading for the game of cricket.

“All the organisers are doing by making scantily-clad white women dance in front of huge crowds is to stoke the base, voyeuristic and sexual insecurities of the Indian male. It is revolting, appalling and shows the game in very poor light,” a disturbed Guha told HT.

“Why we always have to borrow the worst of the western world is beyond me. I have nothing against the cheerleaders, they are only doing their jobs, but I'm against the very concept,” he added. “It's revolting and crude. I hope people are watching cricket rather than the cheerleaders.”

The obscene amounts of money that has exchanged hands is many times more than the GDP of many African countries. Think of the situation in India, inflation, rising prices of all essential commodities, suicide of farmers.....I know I am moving off-track, but I am just pouring out my frustration on the system. You keep spending so much money on one game and keep crying that the nation cannot produce a single Olympic gold medallist. Look at the sad state of affairs of Indian hockey. Jothikumaran accepting a bribe, K.P.S. Gill's dictatorial control, India's failure to qualify for the Olympics, when are we going to see proper utilization of money earmarked by the government or banks for the sustainable development of the country. Should not the BCCI donate a share of its revenues for national growth of its own free will. Do not these stars have a role to play in the upliftment of the country, many have struggled to reach the heights of wealth, fame and power that they currently reside in; but can't they work for a better tomorrow for the nation.

The bitter truth is that we are least bothered about what happens to others. As long as I am not affected, my family and friends are fine, my job is there, I still get my pay-check-"Sab thik thak hai."(Everything is fine) Unless this attitude changes nothing is going to change. Politicians will continue to fool us with fall promises, scams will keep happening, the dollar will rise and fall, we will continue to be bossed around by China, the USA and Russia, the list goes on......

Unless the change happens from within we are doomed.