BCCI Ban Boria Majumdar: No Access to Stadiums, Indian Cricketers for 2 Years

Majumdar has been banned from getting any interviews with registered players in India.

Boria Majumdar has been found guilty by the BCCI for intimidating Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. 

(Photo: Twitter)

The BCCI has decided to ban Boria Majumdar for two years following their internal investigation after Wriddhiman Saha complained of receiving threats from the journalist earlier this year.

The board had constituted a three-member committee comprising BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla, treasurer Arun Dhumal and councillor Prabhtej Singh Bhatia to look into the matter and finalise the sanctions.

In an email sent by board CEO Hemang Amin to the members, it says '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'.

It also mentions that the committee was constituted with 'the key issues for deliberation being to ascertain if the messages sent by the journalist were in the nature of threat and intimidation'.

The panel has decided that, as part of the ban, Majumdar will be given a:

• Two year ban from getting accreditation as a member of the press in any match (domestic or international) in India

• Two year ban from getting any interviews with registered players in India

• Two year ban from access to any of BCCI or member association-owned cricket facilities.

In February, Wriddhiman Saha, the 37-year-old centrally-contracted cricketer, who had been dropped from the Indian team for the Test series against Sri Lanka, had taken to Twitter to publish a screenshot of messages that a "respected" journalist had sent him on WhatsApp.

The screenshot in question had the sender telling Saha "to do an interview with me", to which Saha did not respond. The messages eventually took a more aggressive tone: "You did not call. Never again will I interview you. I don't take insults kindly. And I will remember this. This wasn't something ypu should have done."

The issue escalated after former players like Ravi Shastri, Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, and Virender Sehwag, among others, joined in the criticism of the said journalist. The Indian cricket board subsequently decided to get to the bottom of the issue and constituted a three-member committee to probe the matter.

Majumdar eventually identified himself as being the reporter who had messaged Saha, posting a video on Twitter and claiming that he would take legal action against Saha.

In a video he put out on social media, Majumdar said that the screenshots of the WhatsApp chat that Saha had put out was a doctored version of an exchange between the two.

"There are always two sides to a story. @Wriddhipops has doctored, tampered screenshots of my WhatsApp chats which have damaged my reputation and credibility. I have requested the @BCCI for a fair hearing. My lawyers are serving @Wriddhipops a defamation notice. Let truth prevail," Majumdar said in a tweet along with the video late Sunday night.