What do seven pom-pom waving women clad in mini-skirts have to do with the Federation cup, India?s premier football tournament? The marketing team at Zee sports, the channel that has bagged the exclusive rights for all major domestic tournaments for the next ten years, has hit upon a novel idea to woo crowds back to India?s near-empty football stadiums, thereby weaning Indians off their staple diet of cricket. If the sight of a group of suitably underdressed women, cheerleading and gyrating wildly at the same time cannot breathe fresh life into the waning interest in Indian football, marketing whizkids at Zee would like to believe nothing else would.

Cheerleading is tricky business, mind you. For instance, the girls, who for some reason are known as ZeeBras, were expected to dance to the background score whenever a goal was scored in a match. One suspects that the going must have been terribly rough for the women during a few games, especially for the two who look like they have left their modelling days way behind them. Take for instance, the East Bengal versus Churchill Brothers match. Not one of the strikers from the two teams, neither the good-for-nothing sons of the soil nor the expensive foreign recruits, managed to find the net during regulation 120 minutes. So there was little to do for our ZeeBra girls, except twiddle their thumbs during a drag of a game, and briefly shake a leg during the lemon break. And then suddenly, there was the tie-breaker which saw 19 goals being scored in a matter of minutes! That must have been something, even for the fleet-footed ZeeBra women.

But one must confess that the women have gone about doing their job splendidly. So much so that they managed to steal the thunder from the game itself. During the Mohammedan Sporting-Fransa match, a scuffle broke out when the crowd demanded more Zeebra action. The girls had certainly brought the spectators back to the stadium. But not for any remotely sporting reason.

This raises a rather perplexing question. Is Zee?s announcement of turning things around for Indian football just another empty promise? It certainly looks like one ? a ruse to fill up its own coffers by using pretty faces. It is difficult to believe that a true lover of football would head off to the grounds just for a glimpse of pretty young cheerleading things. Quality football, and talented players, both of which are not exactly in abundance in the country, on the other hand, would certainly win Indian soccer a greater number of fans. There is certainly a pressing need to market the game in India. But simply selling the game would not suffice. Supporting programmes that aim at scouting fresh young talent from the country and organizing tournaments featuring top international clubs would have earned Zee some deserving praise.

And now Team India?s thumping wins against Sri Lanka in the recent one-dayers have made Indian soccer?s prospects even bleaker. The ZeeBras may soon find that they are dancing to empty stands.