Beware of IPL Cricketers Says Gabriella Pasqualotto an IPL Cheerleader

Hot and sexy girls dancing to cheer the crowd and the cricketers! That’s one of the picturesque scenes on Indian pitches nowadays when whole India is enjoying the momentum of IPL cricket matches. The fun of IPL 2011 increased manifolds when compared with that of IPL 2010 because of the historical Indian winning streak in World Cup 2011. Indian cricket team brought the ICC World Cup back home after almost 28 years. Obviously, each and every member of the team became the hotspot for every Indian cricket fan. And as they all are taking part in IPL matches, every Indian is enjoying their heroes in action again.

However, this year has presented a different side of IPL cheerleaders. The first thing is, some of the IPL cricket teams like Kochi Tuskers and Kolkata Knight Riders decided to involve Indian cheerleaders performing Indian dances during the matches. Second and more surprising thing happened when a beautiful and sexy South African (Johannesburg) girl Gabriella Pasqualotto tweeted her mind and thinking about cricketers openly on Twitter. Obviously, she lost her job and a chance to enjoy the eyes of millions on Indians; she was sacked from being an IPL cheerleader for Mumbai Indians.

In one of her tweets at Twitter, she praised M.S Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, she also claimed that Sachin Tendulkar is highly devoted towards his family, however, she raised fingers over flirtatious Graeme Smith. She also blamed Australian cricketers as the most lewd cricketer and sportsmen.

Gabriella Pasqualotto tweeted, "MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma have been very polite and keep to themselves in the dark corners. Hotshots like Tendulkar with families at home are never present. The likes of Jonty Rhodes and Albie Morkel are notorious for having a good time with friends! 'Ol Graeme Smith will flirt with anything while his girlfriend lurks behind him."

Pasqualotto is 22 years old girl and she is certainly sexy and appealing that is why she was chosen as the IPL cheerleader for Mumbai Indians. However, her experiences in India were not as happy as she might have dreamed of. While explaining the Indian scenario, she tweeted, “all eyes are on you all the time; it is complete voyeurism. The women double take, see you and then pretend you do not exist. The men see your face, then your boobs, your butt, and then your boobs again! As we walk, all you hear is 'IPL, IPL!' with a little head jingle!"

While women in west are free to project their sexuality to enjoy their freedom, they also enjoy exposing behaviors. However, in Indian culture, things are pretty different, it’s complicated. What she might have been enjoying in South Africa (Johannesburg) or any other part of the western world became a reason for voyeurism. This is because guys here never see that much portion of flesh on streets, or roads or cricket stadiums. Here still are girls who voluntarily opt to use Burqas, Ghoonghat, Niqab or veils.

Obviously, when a western girl comes to India and tries to live her life with same sexuality and exposing behavior, what she observes is that which was commented by Pasqualotto, “To the citizens, we are practically like walking porn! All eyes are on you all the time; it is complete voyeurism. The women double take, see you and then pretend you do not exist. The men see your face, then your boobs, your butt, and then your boobs again! As we walk, all you hear is “IPL, IPL!” with a little head jingle!”

However, she was most critical about Australian cricketers. Why was that? Australia is obviously a part of western world. Australian girls are amongst the most free, sexually explosive and certainly above the limits of shyness. I am sure Australian players might not have found IPL cheerleaders as anything new. So why were they acting so vulgar? But we have seen decency of Steve Waugh and Paul Rifle too, so it would be wrong to say that all Australian Cricketers are vulgar.

Gabriella Pasqualotto said, “The Aussies are fun but naughty, such as Aiden Blizzard and Dan Christian. By the end of a crazy evening, a certain someone had played kissing catchers with three girls known to me only, although he has his own girlfriend back home. He cooed to each girl, ‘Come home with me, I just want to cuddle!’”

Well, that is nothing new revelation about Australian cricketers. Our beloved Shane Warne, captain and mentor of Rajasthan Royals, has shown his lewd nature many times in history. However, the question remains the same, in spite of having so high degree of sexual freedom in Australia, why Australian cricketers are so vulgar, sex crazy and lewd? Why do they consider IPL cheerleaders nothing more than flesh and meat?

Another burning issue is, the complaining IPL cheerleader Pasqualotto is South African, and Ol’ Grame Smith is also South African. When South African girls like Pasqualotto are so free that they can expose their sexuality openly, why South African cricketers like Graeme Smith feels it as something new and tries to flirt with every other girl?

Now one may say that with increasing sexual freedom for girls, boys naturally gets a free pass for flirting. Voyeurism becomes trend. But if it is so, why Gabriella Pasqualotto found it something wrong?

Or may be its only cricketers who are lewd and vulgar? But then Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, M.S. Dhoni and other Indian cricketers whom Gabriella Pasqualotto praised for being polite, sensitive and decent, are also cricketers. So, not all cricketers are vulgar and sex crazy.

Thus while Pasqualotto claimed, “Oh, please! I have come to realise that cricketers are the most loose and mischievious sportsmen I have come across. Makes me wonder if I should worry about them more then the commoners on the street! I still have a long while here, so I shall keep my tip list in mind,” I disagree with her on that.

Prince Harry is Dating Hollywood Beauty Charlize Theron

The younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales Henry Charles Albert Davis, is rumored to be dating with Hollywood hottie Charlize Theron. This new fairy tale romance is catching fire right after the royal Will-Kat’s wedding. Prince Harry is third son of the British Royal family.

Prince Harry’s usual blond companion is still on-off girlfriend Chelsy Davy. Recently, Prince Harry was seen with Chelsy Davy and Catherine Middleton’s sister Pippa Middleton at London’s Goring Hotel on April 29, a night before the royal wedding of Prince Williams and Catherine Middleton.

The three were a surprise for the people as no one was expecting Prince Harry to appear so late at night just before one of the biggest royal wedding of the decade. Prince Harry was chosen to act as the Best Man for Prince William’s marriage and people were shocked to see him jump from the balcony of the hotel room with a thump just a few hours before the royal wedding.

Red headed Prince Harry is very amongst girls as a romantic royal man and he was spotted flirting with Oscar winning actress at the Ascot Polo Ground at prestigious Peter Grace Polo Academy in the suburbs of London.

Prince Harry is 26 years old and he is about nine years younger than Oscar winning Charlize Theron who is 35 years old. However, both were looking for each other during the event.

The young royal Prince Harry and hot Hollywood actress share a lot of common interests especially in charity work. Both of them are engaged in charity works in South Africa and it is Charlize Theron’s native place. Recently, red headed royal Prince Harry helped in establishing Sentebale in Lesotho in South Africa to help orphan children and poor victims of AIDS.

Charlize Theron on the other hand has established her own platform to help in preventing spread of HIV among South African teenagers through her outreach project.

Charlize Theron is a big name in Hollywood with her highly acclaimed performances in The Italian Job, 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules.

She won her Oscar Award along with high appreciations for her role of a serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster and became the first South African actress to win an Academy Award in a leading actress category.

The World That Was Hers: Hilda Bernstein, my teacher in South African history

When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison after 27 years of incarceration in 1990, I was 7 years old and on the other side of the world. I do remember it though. It was one of those events that was covered in every country and talked of in every place. People of my generation recall the campaign against Apartheid in South Africa, but only in its twilight days – when most of the argument had been won internationally. As a child, political ideas seemed to come to me through a glass darkly, and were formed slightly skew-whiff. Often I had an idea about how I felt about things, but there was a bit of a knowledge gap, particularly in relation to distant lands and afar away cultures.

So, the Persephone Classic, The World That Was Ours by Hilda Bernstein has been a powerful read both emotionally and intellectually – I finally know something about Apartheid South Africa. Hilda Bernstein was a communist and a passionate campaigner against racial segregation. She was born in Britain but her heart seems to have been in Africa. She was white but she rejected her privileged status. She and her husband, Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein were active political dissidents in Johannesburg at a point in its history when dissent was decidedly not allowed.

The World That Was Ours is her memoir of the early 1960s, a period when the Nationalist government in South Africa was at its most Orwellian and rapacious. The Bernstein home is watched day and night, invaded frequently but policemen with seemingly endless arbitrary powers. The Bernsteins are firmly and surely marginalised by legislation; it becomes illegal for them to speak to their closest friends and even at times, each other. Rusty is kept in solitary confinement and put on trial alongside other ANC men, including Nelson Mandela in the kangaroo court of the Rivonia Trial. Miraculously, when the other defendants are sent down for life, Rusty is acquitted and the final act of this memoir is played out. Husband and wife escape South Africa, where they are both hunted people, in a nail biting chase across a barren landscape. They walk across the wilderness until they can hardly move for exhaustion; they are nearly attacked by dogs; they have no idea whom to trust and whom to fear.


The memoir of Hilda Bernstein is far from impartial, but it is a living breathing and extremely chilling window onto her world. I would not call this a political memoir but a personal memoir with a powerful political dimension. Bernstein self defines as a communist and her main reason is that in South Africa the communist party were the only party who were not racist. Bernstein’s communism seems to have been a rather different fish from that considered by another recent read, The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch. For Bernstein, being a communist was about being a humanitarian and her memoir testifies to how easily ideas can mutate across borders and continents. The woman who emerges from these pages is a true idealist. She never, until very near the end, does what is practical. Instead, she does what she thinks is right. Readers may find themselves with mixed feelings at times, because of course; her political life restricted her family life dreadfully. They could not take holidays, they could not go out with their children of an evening, school friends invited for supper would arrive with the police on their tails. Ultimately however, the power of the narrative voice both justifies and fully explains Bernstein. What emerges is a picture of a deeply admirable woman. I fear that I would have strapped on my sandals and run for my life a long time before she did.

The political is knitted together with the domestic and the public, and provides a personal close up on persecution. In this history, coping with challenges strengthens people but also makes them hard and puts them beyond the reach of readjustment. Bernstein deals with this implicitly throughout the book and with remarkable candour in her “afterword”. Her writing is good. She has the confidence of a woman who knows that she can write and is not afraid to break a few rules. The prose is lyrical and almost cinematic. The final sequence in particular, in which Hilda and Rusty fly to safety after a perilous journey is so vivid, that I could almost imagine myself there.

I have peppered this review with pictures of the Persephone edition of the book, the Persephone end paper, and a photograph of the author. Interested readers may also enjoy this excellent review at Books and Chocolate.