Thursday, April 24, 2008

NFL Cheerleaders, $1 Million Pay Shake Cricket: Andy Mukherjee


April 24 (Bloomberg) -- If you think ``getting Bangalored'' is still a metaphor for the loss of Western computer-software and network-maintenance jobs to cheaper workers in India, then you aren't following the Washington Redskins cheerleaders.

Twelve of the ``First Ladies of Football,'' as they like to call themselves, are in India's code-writing capital on work.

Yes, this is outsourcing in reverse; and no, India hasn't taken to playing American football. The National Football League in India refers to a domestic soccer competition; and even that has recently undergone a name change. The cheerleaders are supporting Royal Challengers Bangalore, one of the teams participating in India's newly born cricket league.

The Indian Premier League, a 44-day, 59-match annual fixture, has already emerged as one of the largest and most- promising new business opportunities in India in recent years.

Commentators have mostly focused on how lucrative the league is for the players and the Indian cricket board; cricket enthusiasts have considered the pros and cons of the game's condensed format: It finishes within three hours; a Test match, the classical version, can take five days.

More financially oriented analysts have wondered if it would make a profit for the owners of the teams, including billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani, spirits tycoon Vijay Mallya and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan MoreDetails>>

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