When Emerging Media bought the team Rajasthan Royals, they contacted the Mumbai-based Inega Entertainment to scout for cheerleaders, who then hired a placement agency in Moscow. The girls of Rajasthan Royal earn approximately 25,000 per match, and they will perform at a minimum of 14 matches at the IPL, maybe more if the Royals qualify for the semi-finals. The girls acknowledge that its good money, almost 30 per cent more than what they would make at a football match in Russia. “More than money, we get exposure to something completely different, a new country and a new game,” says Olga Yarysheva, 21, while applying a spray of water to her face to cool down. Guseva explains to the girls that cricket is like baseball, and they’ve worked out the cue on when to start their routine; when the ball goes beyond the white boundary. “When our side takes wickets, they have to be prodded to start,” says Anant Vyas, media spokesperson for the Rajasthan Royals.

Piyush Inega of Inega Entertainment who’s made arrangements for the girls’ stay and travel within India says he’s concerned about their safety in the country and he monitors their movements between matches. “They can’t read the English newspapers so they don’t know all the stuff that’s being written about them,” says Inega. “When they go out shopping I have guards around.” However, these girls are chattering away in Russian and seem completely oblivious of the stir they caused in Hyderabad’s streets while shopping. Utterly unselfconscious and naturally uninhibited, they took a stroll to Char Minar to look for bindis and bangles, when they stumbled upon saris and went into raptures. “People stare a lot here,” says Guseva hesitantly.

... contd.