I've become a fan of the Indian cricket team

Poonam Pandey after surviving an
explosion in a pastel factory

Well, no, not really. I watched cricket once and as I recall it seemed like a completely daft version of American baseball.

While perusing Weird Asia News I came across the article Indian Model Will Strip For World Cup Victory (SFW). It reports that Indian model Poonam Pandey has claimed she will strip naked if India wins the Cricket World Cup.

She justified the promise, which she claims is not a publicity stunt, by saying, “I’m a cricket fanatic and I’m a diehard supporter of my nation. India needs a lot of support and this is my way of supporting the team… I’m confident of my body and I’m doing this to excite our boys to play better.”

OK, the jokes just write themselves so I'll just move on. You may of course add comments to the comment thread if you get the urge.

This is apparently some sort of a trend. It started when the Paraguayan model Larissa Riquelme  said she would run around naked if her team won the World's Cup. They lost, but she stripped off her clothes in front of the flag of Paraguay for a photo shoot anyways. Um... that was sporting of her I guess.

I also remember reading earlier this year, at the ever zany ChinaSmack, the article Han Yifei Nude Photographs Fulfill Chinese Basketball Promise (NSFW - not much really, just a lot of skin and strategically placed basketballs. Still, better safe than sorry). They won. Han Yifei produced the pictures.

So, this appears to be a growing trend, moving from Paraguay, to China to India. Hmmm... if the direction of travel of this trend continues, the next thing you know the Saudi Women's Soccer Team will be promising to showing some ankle any day now. Whoo-boy, be still my beating heart!

Saudi Women's Soccer Team