Flies on the wall of Indian cricket

By John Cheeran
The vantage position, if one can say that, in Indian cricket goes to the fly on the wall.
Apparently there are quite a few flies on the wall of Indian cricket.
Especially when the buzz from playing field has stopped for a while allowing cricketers and cricket writers to catch their breath.
Why has the BCCI announced Sachin Tendulkar as the vice-captain for the one-day series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka at home?
Normally India does not identify a vice-captain for home matches.
Will Tendulkar get Indian captaincy after the World Cup?
How did Virender Sehwag retain his place for the last Test of the South African series in Cape Town?
Why did the Board retract from the move to send the callow Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma to South Africa as a replacement for Irfan Pathan?
What exactly happened between New Delhi and Cape Town?
Will Sourav Ganguly open for India in one-dayers?
Will Greg Chappell continue as Indian cricket team coach after the World Cup?
Have our cricketers formed survival groups with in the dressing room? How grave are the factionalism and parochialism in Indian cricket?
Such profound questions are answered everyday by Indian cricket writers, a few of them I should still count as my friends. During India’s 2006-2007 South African tour a few of the bylines felt familiar to me.
I wonder how they manage to prise out such behind-the-scene secrets in Indian cricket.
Yes, this is the era of communication revolution. This is the media age of snoopy dogs. This is the age of hidden cameras. But nothing can swat the fly on the wall.
Separating news from gossip can be as daunting as batting on a sticky wicket.
Cricketers are forced to play their cricket out in the open in the presence of cameras and crowd.
But these days, news is not what happens in front of our eyes, but what happens inside the dressing rooms and boardrooms.
No wonder then that flies on the wall are much in demand.