Boria Majumdar
The moment you are critical about some cricketer or coach, you are certain to face a backlash. And it doesn’t stop there. You will be called paid PR, you will be called names and at times your parentage questioned. The fact is that it is our job in the media to ask questions, especially if I am writing an Op-Ed piece to give my opinion. You are welcome to differ and disagree. In fact, anyone should. But the level of intolerance is such that disagreements will inevitably lead to social media slander and journalists be labelled as paid PR.
While I can’t speak for others, I can indeed speak for myself and for everyone working for RevSportz. If anyone, yes anyone, of these trolls can ever come and prove that a single penny has been paid to my journalists to do a piece of news, that particular journalist will be asked to leave. The truth is social media is a cesspit of unmitigated rubbish. Over the last few days, I have been reading about players failing the Yo-Yo Test and passing the Yo-Yo Test with very high scores. The numbers that are being reported on social media are all examples of kite-flying. That’s the truth. Now the moment you say it, toxic fan groups will come and start abusing. That’s the reality in this day and age of social media.
Whatever you write on Shubman Gill or Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli, you know you will face abuse. If you praise Gill’s batting efforts, someone will make a compilation of his dismissals and call you PR. If you say Rohit and Virat could stay on till 2027 if they keep performing, someone will say you are trying to do negative PR against Gill and others. It is a peculiar Catch-22 that you find yourself in.
On my show I am asked questions like A and B have gone to Rajgir to cover the Asia Cup hockey. Why haven’t you sent anyone when you claim you cover all sports? The truth is A and B were there on a government invite and left after two days. It was a junket in blunt terms. For us, Abhishek Mishra was always to go but was unwell after returning from Chennai where he was covering the National Athletics meet. He will indeed be in Rajgir from tomorrow. If someone had asked this question, he or she would have got the answer. Rather, the idea was to take potshots.
I think this has to do with how we are as a society. We are an intolerant lot and the toxicity is growing by the day. You can’t be stating objective facts anymore. That’s where RevSportz is a breath of fresh air. We don’t need to be PR to do our jobs. There is enough and more corporate and investor support out there. That’s why you will see multiple people covering the Women’s World Cup from on ground, multiple people covering the World Para Athletics from on ground and multiple people covering the Asia Cup. And yes, not for two days but entire tournaments. Before anyone asks we did also plan to send people to Tokyo for World Athletics but the paperwork did not happen on time.
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