A troupe of cheerleaders is to be unleashed on cricket crowds in India, provoking complaints of an "alien culture" invading the traditionally conservative country.

The 12-member squad is to add a dash of glamour to the Royal Challengers team in Bangalore, after being trained by cheerleaders for the American football team, the Washington Redskins.

The move is expected to lead to protests by religious and women's groups against immodesty, exploitation and the intrusion of American influences on India.

Charu Sharam, the chief executive of the Challengers, said that the squad's "accoutrements and clothing will be in line with professional American cheerleading troupes" - which often consist of mini-skirts, push-up bras and midriff-revealing vests.

The group will perform a mix of Bollywood and American hip-hop moves before the first game of the 20-20 Indian Premier League in May.

The league is being promoted as a racier alternative to traditional Test match cricket, with glamourous foreign player imports and fast, attacking cricket over 40 overs.

"I know what we are doing is cutting edge and we have been working for weeks creating the new uniforms," said Donald Wells, the director of the Redskins cheerleaders.

"This fusion of dance backgrounds has created a new amazing style."

Local reaction to a Challengers troupe, however, has been mixed.

"It is completely alien to our culture to have young skimpily clad Indian girls sporting pompoms on their derrieres dancing around furiously," Bangalore resident Roshin Varghese said.

"There has to be some limit to us aping the Americans."

Others in Punjab state were less critical. "It will be pleasing to watch the cheerleaders in all their glory" said dentist Gurpreet Singh.

"They will add colour and impudence to the game."

Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at New York University, however, told The New York Times that he expected demonstrations outside cricket stadiums where the cheerleaders are performing by women's groups and Hindu fundamentalists.

And, with the Redskins cheerleaders on Indian soil, he said: "one can safely declare that the British cultural influence in India has been entirely replaced by an American one."