Boria Majumdar's Book 'Banned: A Social Media Trial' Hits The Stands As His 2-Year BCCI Sanction Ends

Boria Majumdar's new book 'Banned: A Social Media Trial' talks about how he faced a social media trial following a cricketer's allegations and how it impacted his personal and professional life.

Boria Majumdar, well known sports journalist who was handed out a two-year ban by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), launched his new book, 'Banned: A social media trial' in Kolkata on Tuesday (April 23). The Indian cricket board had issued the ban on Majumdar following allegations of "threat" and "initimidation" from India's wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha after the stumper reportedly declined an interview request from the author.

Majumdar's book talks about how he was subjected to a social media trial following the cricketer's allegations and how it impacted his personal and professional life. He also thanked members of the sporting fraternity who supported him during what he describes as a "crisis". He expressed his gratitude to Pullela Gopichand, Abhinav Bindra, Sania Mirza and Saurav Ghosal.

READ HERE | BCCI Bans Journalist Boria Majumdar For 2 Years In Wriddhiman Saha Intimidation Case

"As I launch my book, BANNED- A Social Media Trial, this afternoon and reveal the entire truth and how difficult and unfair it was, I have to say I owe my deepest gratitude to a few of India’s greatest athletes who helped me and my family tide over the crisis.  I have documented it all in the book. But I will fail if I don’t acknowledge @PGopichand73 @Abhinav_Bindra @MirzaSania @SauravGhosal and a number of others who literally held me back from giving up," he wrote in a post on X.

"To my family- I owe them everything," he wrote in another post.

Against The Entitled, I Never Stood A Chance: Boria Majumdar 

Without naming the cricketer anywhere in his post or in his speech, Majumdar revealed how he never stood a chance against the said person as the athlete had represented India internationally and enjoyed certain entitlements as well as the power to drive social media narratives. 

"A social media trial can break you. There were thousands of tweets of abuse for days on end, all premised on a set of untruths pushed by someone hugely powerful because he had played for the country and the national team. Against the entitled, I never stood a chance. The online trial forced me and the family to draw on every last bit of inner strength, and yet left permanent scars," Majumdar said at the book launch.

"Having served the ban, I wanted closure in the form of this book. But no one knows better that there will never be a full stop. I will not get back the two years of opportunities that I lost, or the days and evenings when I was almost a stranger to my daughter," he added.

Olympic medallist Bindra, ex-India shuttler Gopichand spoke about the perils of social media trials while Majumdar's wife Sharmistha Gooptu spoke about how they dealt with the entire episode as a family.

"I can only be thankful that my daughter was then 8 and not 14 or 15 and not on social media to witness her father’s humiliation. The trolls did not spare her, or me," she said.