Cheerleader’s diaries causes a storm

Gabriel Pasquallotto, who was sent home from the IPL after she blogged about cricketers.

Gabriel Pasquallotto, who was sent home from the IPL after she blogged about cricketers.

Published May 14, 2011

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SHE may have been booted out as an IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket cheerleader, but she has since been offered a role in a major Bollywood movie and invited to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in India.

That’s IPL Girl, Pietermaritzburg’s Gabriella Pasqualotto, 22, who was sent home this week by IPL management when they learned about her “Secret Diary of an IPL Cheerleader”.

Twitter and the blogosphere was abuzz this week about the “Secret Diary” blogs, in which she chats about her role as a cheerleader and the after-dark activities of some of the world’s top cricketers.

It all started with the cheerleaders’ arrival in India: “We are 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 we hear is ‘IPL IPL’ with a little head jingle.”

Describing an after-party in her blog Part II, she said: “The music pumps, the drinks flow and the cricketers come and go. We mingle and associate with important people of the IPL wearing their finest and sexiest….but the real fun happens in the VIP rooms where the players and night owls can cause scandal!

“The few Indian players we have met, such as MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, have been very polite and keep to themselves in 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. The Aussies are fun but naughty, such as Aiden Blizzard and Dan Christiaan. By the end of a crazy evening, a certain someone had played kissing catches with three girls known to me only. He cooed to each girl, ‘Come home with me I just want to cuddle’.”

And back at home this week, Pasqualotto said she has been bewildered and overwhelmed by the intense interest from cricket fans and celebrity followers, especially from India and Australia, as well as being hounded by the world’s media, including America’s NBC channel and top radio DJs from Down Under.

“I started a Twitter account as an IPL Girl when I was going to India and within the first week I was approached by the owner of website, alternativecricket.com, who asked if I would like to blog about my time as an IPL cheerleader. My blogs were light, fun and innocent – I’m not a malicious person. I mentioned Graeme Smith, but that was old news anyway. When I called the Aussies ‘naughty’, it was meant as mischievous and not in a sexual way. And my blogs were not only about cricket, but also my experience of India,” she said.

She had told her cheerleading team about her blog and believes one of them told the cricketers.

“Some of the girls were texting the cricketers. I heard that a cricketer or certain cricketers went to the IPL chairman – those guys had very guilty consciences and were scared of what I might say and that I might reveal names. I was treated like a common criminal. I was not sleeping with any of the cricketers, but I was very feared by the cricketers, who acted like schoolboys running to the principal.

“I want to make it clear not all cricketers are ‘meat treaters’ and some of them do not even attend any of the after-parties,” she said.

She added that tickets for the IPL after-parties could be bought by anyone, with “loads of people taking photographs” at every party.

She said many of the stories in the world’s media and cyberspace were incorrect, misquoted from her blog or outright lies.

“One Indian paper ran the headline ‘Pay me, or I will tell all’. There is so much I could say about the cricketers or could reveal in another blog, but I haven’t done that. I have not accepted any money for my blog or for any interviews and I am not taking any legal action,” she added.

Her predicament has attracted much attention: she has had offers to appear in a Bollywood movie, an Indian reality TV show, attend a VIP party and the inaugural Indian Formula One Grand Prix.

Pasqualotto’s mother, Amanda, said she is angry about her daughter’s treatment by the IPL.

“The girls were told to move around in groups, but they packed her into a taxi on her own and sent her off to the airport. She had no airtime, no-one called us from the Indian agency despite promising Gabby they would do so. She had an eight-hour stopover in Dubai and no US dollars to even buy a cup of coffee – we did not even know where she was. It’s a disgrace the way they treated her,” said Amanda.

And Pasqualotto said she is quite happy to stand by her blogs and her tweets, which included “the known cricketers caused this sh*tstorm without thinking, not me”.

And with Tip No 1 on her blog “Beware of the cricketers!” will there be a Part III on her blog?

“I would like to thank everyone on Twitter and FaceBook for their support this week and I’m still a big fan of my team, the Mumbai Indians. Maybe there will be a Part III and if there is, it will probably be about this whole debacle,” she said.

The IPL did not respond to requests for comment and Cricket SA’s spokesman, Michael Owen-Smith said: “This matter has absolutely nothing to do with CSA. The IPL is a domestic Indian competition and all enquiries should be directed either to the IPL or the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).”

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