He was found guilty of bullying, threatening, and intimidating wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha after the latter was dropped from the Test squad.
The ban includes restrictions from interviewing any centrally contracted players in India as well as a lack of access to the board and the state units’ facilities. The ban has been made effective after the Apex Council rubber-stamped the three-member fact-finding committee’s recommendations.
Cricket Journalist Banned by BCCI: कौन ??? #shorts #crickethighlights https://t.co/gDq6hcX4ui#shorts #BoriaMajumdarban #WriddhimanSahaControversy
— Doon Law Mentor (@doonlawmentor) April 28, 2022
The committee comprising cricket board’s vice-president Rajiv Shukla, treasurer Arun Dhumal, and the BCCI Apex Council member Prabhtej Singh Bhatia found Mr. Boria guilty of “bullying” Saha. The International Cricket Council would also be informed about banning journalists from global events.
On Wednesday, the BCCI’s interim CEO Hemang Amin wrote to all the member units. He said, “The BCCI Committee considered the submissions by both Mr. Saha and Mr. Majumdar and concluded that the actions by Mr. Majumdar were indeed in the nature of threat and intimidation. ”
#BCCI today announced a two-year ban on journalist #BoriaMajumdar as a consequence of a controversy involving threatening messages he sent to veteran cricketer Wriddhiman Saha. https://t.co/U2eUtPMP9S pic.twitter.com/GtMXmjhRRK
— Scroll.in (@scroll_in) May 4, 2022
This happened after Wriddhiman was dropped off in India’s test match against Sri Lanka. A lot of former Indian cricketers-including Ravi Shastri sympathized with Saha, who was hesitant to name the journalist in public. However, he named Majumdar in the hearing.
Majumdar had earlier told this paper that he would file a defamation suit against Saha. “I’m filing a defamation case on Wriddhiman Saha…I have emailed everybody in the BCCI the entire sequence of events. I have also tweeted my side of the story,” Majumdar had said.
In his statement to the BCCI, the journalist claimed that Saha’s manager visited his place in February this year and set up “two interviews as a brand-building exercise”. On February 10, ahead of the IPL mega auction, Majumdar had sent some texts to the player via WhatsApp. A series of texts were sent on February 13 after Saha was roped in by Gujarat Titans on the second day of the IPL auction.
And if you aren’t keen let’s stop this rightaway for the tournament has been announced and this is a futile thread. I respect disagreement and as I said yesterday let’s agree to disagree. I would better watch you play than engage here with you.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) August 3, 2020
The journalist’s statement gave details of his WhatsApp texts to Saha, claiming that the latter had “confirmed an interview over Zoom”. He said that the context of the texts was “the disappointment over the failure of Mr. Saha to comply with his professional commitment and hence was an expression of dismay by Mr. Majumdar”. The journalist clearly denied any threats or hostile actions.
Reference: The Indian Express
