Media MonsterSports & Politics

Model Promises To Bare All If India Wins Cricket World Cup, Public Outcry Looming

A 20-year-old Indian model, Poonam Pandey, has promised to get naked—first in front of a crowd, then in front of the players in the locker room—if India wins the Cricket World Cup (an event that’s kind of a big deal in her part of the world, in case you haven’t heard). This is interesting for a few obvious reasons, and also for some more subtle ones.

Pandey says she is doing this to “support the team” and “excite our boys to play better.” Also: hot model promises nakedness. So that’s the “obvious” portion of this story.

Now, for the not-as-obvious: Pandey lives in India—a country where almost 95 percent of the people are Hindus or Muslims. As you might imagine, a single woman getting naked in public could seriously offend the conservative values of much of the country.

Already, there has been political outcry:

“This is against public morality. It is an offence. The government should make sure such acts should stop. If they do not handle it, we will,” says Rahul Navrekar, of the right wing Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Also, there’s this: India is a relatively heavy favorite to win the World Cup against Sri Lanka Saturday, so if the oddsmakers have it right, she will very likely be baring it all soon.

Pandey says this has nothing to do with gaining publicity:

“I don’t care if people have a problem. I am one of the most downloaded models online. I don’t need to do this for publicity. I am doing what I want to do.”

But after seeing Larissa Riquelme’s world-wide rise in fame, it’s hard to imagine it’s not at least, in part, for the attention. Obviously, it will be interesting to see the public and political reaction if India does win the World Cup, and Pandey does, indeed, get nakey.

And if India doesn’t win the World Cup?

Well, we can officially start calling these sports-related promises to get naked the “Larissa Riquelme Jinx.”