Indian Premier League (IPL) cheerleader Gabriella Pasqualotto of Mumbai Indians had sparked a major controversy few years ago after she was sacked by the MI's cheerleading squad for claiming that cricketers misbehaved with her at post-match parties. Shortly after her sacking, the 22-year-old Pasqualotto took to Twitter to spew venom against the IPL management.
After Pasquallato was sent back to South Africa, she tweeted from her handle @Iplgirl, “My blog was meant to be light and witty and not taken seriously or to heart… this should not have become such a scene…” She added, “My blog was not just based on the cricketers, I wrote only a few sentences about them and it seems it scared the S### out of them.”
It is to be noted that the IPL and Mumbai Indians management preferred to maintain silence on the matter but Pasqualotto had found support from other cheerleaders. “If she wrote that people treat us like ‘pieces of meat’, it’s true. At parties, once people are drunk, they get really touchy-freely and misbehave, assuming that we’re easy girls,” said a cheerleader, as reported by Hindustan Times. “We stand by you,” tweeted another supporter, Mr.lix.
Pasqualotto first grabbed headline when she started tweeting about her experiences as @IPLGirl. Later, she started writing an anonymous blog, on which she talked about flirtatious cricketers and IPL parties. According to reports, a heerleader informed cricketers about Pasqualotto's actions and she was sacked and sent home.
She told South African newspaper, The Witness, “I was sent home as if I was a criminal. I was treated as if I had taken drugs or done something awful, and I was never offered an opportunity to give my side of the story. It’s a joke. There were cameras everywhere at these after-parties, watching what they got up to. The guys treated us like a piece of meat. We couldn’t go anywhere without the crowds mobbing us. But nothing I wrote was directed at any one person. I think the cricketer [an Aussie] who complained had a guilty conscience.”