'I DIDN’T OPEN MY MOUTH BECAUSE I KNEW I WOULD NOT BE BELIEVED'

Boria Majumdar has been covering sports for over two decades and is famous for his commentary and analysis of the sporting world. He has taught in the US, the UK and Australia and is the founder of Revsports, a multi-sport digital platform.

His latest book, however, deals with his personal experiences that followed a controversy in 2022 and is titled ‘Banned: A social media trial’.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Q. Do you want to briefly tell us what ‘Banned’ is all about?

A. It's traumatic to actually recount. In February 2022, a certain cricketer of national repute put out a series of tweets saying that I had actually bullied him with a series of WhatsApp messages. I have not named the cricketer in the book, because I don't want him or his family to go through exactly what my family and I went through.

These tweets unleashed an avalanche of vitriol on social media, eventually leading to a two-year ban which prevented me from covering cricket in India and abroad. The ban ended on April 22, 2024. So it's still very raw.

The truth is, it was a series of untruths that were paraded against me. I was the victim because I was powerless against the entitled and what was being said on social media. I didn’t open my mouth because I knew I would not be believed and no one wanted to hear my side of the story.

‘Banned’ is my side of the story that has not been revealed so far. It is about self-respect and what I stand for.

Q. What did it take to write this, because you've written in the first person?

A. This book has drained me, it has finished me. I sought closure because I thought I needed closure. My family did. This is the most difficult book that I've written.

This book was my story that tells the world there is another side of the story, and don't pronounce someone guilty without hearing that side.

I know my two years won't come back. But you need to know my side of the story and then decide for yourself whether you are actually talking to a monster. Or are you actually talking to someone who tried to create a legacy for sport for the last 25 years by doing something that he's proud of? I’ll let you decide that.

Q. There were a few who stood up for you. For instance, Pullela Gopichand, Javed Akhtar, and PV Sindhu. Would you like to talk a little more about their support and how it changed your fortunes at Revsports?

A. I will add another name to that, Abhinav Bindra. These are people who have silently been there for me.

I can't forget what my wife did for me, what my family, my colleagues at Revsports did for me, because they too were trolled. None of you stopped believing in me. That's why ‘Banned: The social media trial’ is a reality today.

Q. Do you think the incident involving you would have played out differently before the internet age?

A. The truth is, there would be no incident because you can't peddle a series of lies and get away. You had to protect your own career and you had to put someone under the bus.

I'm a journalist. I did not know that you can't tamper with someone's WhatsApp messages and put it out in the public domain because it's an intrusion of privacy.

I was apparently entitled to legal recourse, but I'm not a lawyer. All my life I’ve served sports and I'm not here to take an athlete to court.

There has to be some mediation, rather than this free flow of abuse and insults. I think the toxicity we see on social media is a defining feature of our age.

Q. Have you noticed any behavioural change in the way you use social media and the internet after this particular incident?

A. Every now and then when I make a comment, people will come back and post screenshots and say ‘you're a cancer’.

At one level, people have moved on because people like you accept me, listen to me and give me a platform.

If someone goes through incessant trolling, come to me, because I can help with my two little pieces of advice on how to deal with it. I think I'm more mature and more ruthless, because I know what these trolls are about. I also know that I can survive to tell my tale.

Q. One of the things that you do talk about is the rage that you're left with and how you use it to see how you can improve on your past self…

A. This rage is not against anybody. It is not directed at an individual.

The rage is to protect the vulnerable. The rage is against the system that has now become toxic. But at the same time, the rage is also the resolve to have more people like you, who are sensitive, to have platforms like yours, to write a book.

If that allows one person to convert and believe in more restraint, sensitivity, nuance, and understanding, we have created a better world.

Audio production: Sahil Gupta