Madhya Pradesh: Bundelkhand is abuzz with cricket, music and dance of cheer girls

BHOPAL: The last season of the IPL may have lacked colour in the absence of

cheer girls

and spectators, there is no dearth of entertainment in the dusty hamlets of

Bundelkhand

. Large numbers of people are cheering their teams and every four and six is greeted by loud music and dance by

desi girls

.


With hardly any work remaining in the farm fields and the farmers waiting for the wheat crop to be ready in the next one month or so, its time to have fun. Over 100

cricket

tournaments are under way in the district of

Chattarpur

,

Tikamgarh

and Panna, even in the neighbouring districts of Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh among others. Men, women and children gather and enjoy the cricket and the entertainment provided by cheer girls- young girls from the local nautanki companies which were rendered jobless because of the spread of coronavirus.

In the absence of social functions and wedding celebrations, the nautanki companies hardly had any earning almost for the whole year since the outbreak of coronavirus, said Prashant Patel, president of the organization committee of one such tournament in Bamitha village of Chattarpur.

He said that these artistes were hired for the whole tournament which lasts for 7 to 10 days.

"The local but very popular folk songs and music is played during the cricket matches. Every time the ball crosses the boundary it is celebrated with dance and loud music”, he said.

Many times the dance and music continues despite the revival of the match after the ball is thrown back to the bowler.

"The spectators enjoy the dance and even throw currency notes at the girls”, said Payal, a nautanki dancer.

She said that, "Each of us gets Rs 2,000 from the organizers for the whole tournament”.

Another cheer girl Rekha said, "The cricket matches have given us some employment otherwise the whole year was very difficult and I was not able to contribute to my family”.

The cheer girls also aspire to perform at international platforms of the IPL.