IPL Girl: 5000 Facebook requests

By Suneetha

IPL and blogs seem to be fated to controversy. Last year, the Fake IPL Player put all IPL players on tenterhooks with his riveting blog then walked away with a book deal and a column. This year, the IPL Girl has grabbed the limelight with a newsy and now shot-down blog, as well as a twitter account. Gabriella Pasqualotto, from South Africa, is the youngster behind the IPL Girl.

Gabriella Pasqualotto was just one of those 40 cheerleaders recruited from South Africa through an online agency, and one of her many skills is dancing. Like many South African youngster who face a dearth of employment opportunity in their home country, she too hoped to save money to go live abroad and then come back to SA to a ‘substantial job’. The cheerleader job was just her window to stepping out into the world.  But more than a job awaited her in India.

Her blog, started as an informal, chatty one, was soon seen as a potential privacy threat by some cricketers and banned just after its fiery baptism. She was packed off home before she could say ‘IPL’ after her Manager was instructed to do so by IPL authorities, yeah with barely an hour’s notice. But back home, Gabriella shot to fame and was besieged by the media about her sudden exit from India, which now has given her not just fame, but ostensibly a Bollywood offer and it’s rumoured an invite to the Grand Prix in India in October.

Techgoss and the IPL Girl had this conversation.

Techgoss (TG): What were the factors you considered before selecting a blogging platform?  Did you get on to Twitter at the same time?

Gabriella Pasqualotto (GP): I created my twitter account @IPLgirl before departing to India. I thought it would be something fun and interesting, as there are many IPL accounts (personal, groups, teams & cricketers themselves). People following the IPL tournament comment, raise questions and keep updates of the matches etc. As a cheerleader, it was something different to update my status about my experience as a cheerleader and about adventures in India.

There were no factors about my blog that I thought about before because to be honest, I never thought it would turn out to be this way.

TG: What was your blog traffic like when the world media reported your story?  Did you get tens of thousands of new visitors?  Hundreds of thousands?

GP: Before world media reported my story, I had a few hundred followers. Afterwards, I had tens of thousands people viewing my blog and reading up about it. If I knew that so many people would read my blog, then maybe I would have changed a few things such as, generalising the whole Indian community and cricketers. I know not every Indian man is the way I explained and people must know that not every cricketer is the way I described. But I do not regret anything I wrote or doing my blog. I never received any money to write my blog either.

TG: How many media - old and online - have approached you?

GP: I have had many people from media approaching me, especially in India - lots of newspapers and news channels. South African media, I have done a few interviews, such as The Witness Newspaper, The Independent Newspaper, SA Sports Illustrated etc. TV news and radio stations have also approached me. It hit global media such as NBC America, The Wall Street Journal, Canada, The Sunday Times London, UK sports columns, Australia, New Zealand, Paris, and Italian Newspapers etc.

I have not sold my stories and I have not done any interviews for anyone else or written an exclusive story.

TG: Anyone who becomes well known on the net, runs a risk of getting their accounts hacked?  Did you have any security fears for your online accounts?

GP: Media have approached me through phone calls, finding my home address, email, twitter, Facebook. Also, trying to get into contact through SA media to get hold of me, my friends somehow etc. I have had a Facebook overload - nearing over 5000 friend requests, 1000's of attached messages - people would send messages of support, thoughtful or opinionated comments, random things and links etc. I appreciate every message I get and find it very thoughtful I feel privileged to have received as much support as I have. My twitter account had only over 100 followers, now it is nearing 3500!

I did initially fear for my accounts being hacked but I already had my privacy settings set up on Facebook. It is definitely worth having extremely strong passwords, being careful not to leave your windows open on your PC, logging out properly, as well as keeping up with security software.

TG: How would you rate the online coverage?  Ok?  Fair?  Too sensational?  How much time do you spend on internet or social networking forums?

GP: The online coverage has been overloaded. If one types in my name onto Google search, there are literally pages of information, articles, and pictures, videos about me and my story and blogs. I never wanted to sensationalise my story whatsoever, I wanted to stand my ground, keep my morale and stick with my argument as it is meant to be. It is very easy to put one's guard down and change the tone of your story just to sell your story, let media write things out of context. One has to stay with one direction and stick with it; else it becomes hypocritical and causes confusion and mixed emotion toward you as person and your story.

I’ve learnt media will always exaggerate, speak out of context, make the smallest thing the biggest thing, and quote you when you actually have never stated anything. For example, The New Age Newspaper said 'Gabriella Pasqualotto is taking legal action against the IPL,' although I had never uttered those words. One must be careful with every word one puts out there. Many media are always checking up on what I’m saying on Twitter too.

I check my online accounts every day. On the weekends, I tend not to, just to have a break. I am on my accounts whenever possible throughout my day to keep up with it and manage it properly. I am constantly emailing and sending responses, discussing things with my media manager, keeping active on twitter. I don’t have to, but I think it’s very important to be interested with people who are interested in you and it is only polite and respectful to answer people’s questions and comment and keep in contact. I hope to receive the same respect back from people. But you will always get some people that disagree, say nasty and derogatory things to spite you. But one must never let it get to your heart. At least on twitter one can block followers and on FB, one can choose whom to be friends with you. If I leave my Facebook for too long, the messages pile up, wanting to know more, the friend requests get too much to manage etc. So it’s become a full time thing but I enjoy it. Like I said, I don’t have to reply or speak to people but I do. I also spend a lot of time researching things, surfing the net for my interests, exploring, keeping up with current events and the times.

TG: Tell us about how you got into this blogging contract? How many blogs did you do?

GP: Two - Three weeks of creating my twitter account an online cricket magazine alternativecricket.com approached me and asked if I would like to start blogging for their site. My blog was based on MY experience as a cheerleader and MY experience in India and being a part of the IPL. I was very excited with this offer because I love to write, I enjoyed studying English and this was the first opportunity I received to do such a thing. And like my twitter account, I thought it different, exciting and something personal.

Alternativecricket.com is focussed on cricket as a whole with articles, updates, news etc. They are witty and humorous and full of funny anecdotes. This caught my attention as I enjoy having a sense of humour and seeing the bright side of things.

I only got a chance to write two blogs. The first was a basic introduction about how I started cheerleading, what cheerleading is and a little about the trip so far. The second blog was the one that caused the uproar with the cricketers. I wrote about being a cheerleader and how we were viewed and a few lines about the IPL after parties and the cricketers.

TG: How do you think the ban happened? Do you intend to be a blogger again, now that you have made your mark among bloggers, albeit a personally painful one?

GP: I never directed any gossip to any one cricketers name (except Graham Smith but his ways are very old news!) but they obviously got very sensitive, the one's that had guilty consciences. They feared I would say more, name, and shame and I was seen as an internal snitch at these private parties. So 2 blogs, a paragraph about the parties and soon after that, IPL tried sweeping me under the rug by asking my managers to tell me to take my blogs off the net and I was to be fired. This hasty approach quite obviously back fired because the few people that knew about the blog would have forgotten about it now but today, thousands know about my story, the cricketer’s actions and the handling of the IPL. I wrote my blog under my strict @IPLgirl alias. Soon my identity was found out by word of mouth.

The ban happened because of the cricketers fearing me and because IPL is so powerful. They handled it extremely badly and I was treated extremely badly. Since, my blogs are back up and yes, I will carry on blogging and I am putting blog number 3 out there soon. Then I will carry on writing my own things, not about cricket. I think many people would read my third blog and hopefully carry on reading them to their fancy.

TG: Will you visit India again?

GP: Yes, I will definitely visit India again! I loved every minute of it. I thought it was such an interesting country, friendly people, amazing culture and always something to look at. There are so many people around that the bustle is incredible to be a part of. I was lucky enough to travel most parts of India and discover the different ways of life but there is so much I missed out on and there is so much more I would love to go, see and do. The people of India must realise I wrote my blog through the eyes of a cheerleader, it was never intentional, I was never meant to step on anyone’s toes and it was never meant to be malicious. I love the country and the people and I do not have anything bad to say about it. My blog was not just about cricket and IPL, it was more than that but obviously only after 2 blogs no one could see that. My blog was going to be about all the food we tried and tested and the different countries and how we handled cheering so much in the heat etc.

 PS: The Fake IPL Player has blogged about the IPL Girl…Howzzaat?