With Indian cricket you never know what to expect next. Be it dressing room talk or the coach's e-mail to the Board president, everything goes public within hours. So intense is competition in the Indian media to break stories.

Players have been misquoted, officials have gone back on their word and there seems no end to the drama.

Now, finally, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has come forward to stem the rot and appointed a media manager.

Strange it may seem, but their selection is an Indian Air Force man.

Wing Commander M Baladitya has been assigned the task of managing the media affairs of the Indian team.

"It feels nice to be associated with the Indian team," said Baladitya, who also served as manager of the team during the tour by Pakistan earlier this year.

Recently, Indian cricket was embroiled in controversy after deposed captain Sourav Ganguly [Images] told a television channel during the tour of Zimbabwe that he was asked to step down as captain before the start of the Test series. His comments triggered off a chain of events and even a confidential e-mail sent by coach Greg Chappell [Images] to Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Ranbir Singh Mahendra was leaked out to a newspaper within hours of it being dispatched.

But the Delhi-based Baladity is unperturbed about the past. According to him, media is a part of Indian cricket.

"It is as important as the game. Media has a role to play along, and together we can take Indian cricket to greater heights," said Baladitya, who is serving in the IAF since 1982.

Asked whether his appointment signalled the end of information being leaked from the dressing room to the media, he replied: "That I cannot say. I will try my best to keep the media informed as much as possible. Even during matches I will move around and keep giving them required information."

So what does his job involve?

"The basic intention of appointing a media manager is to keep the players away from the distraction of the media," informed Baladitya, before heading into the team's dressing room in Nagpur, venue of Tuesday's first one-day international between India and Sri Lanka [Images].