It has now been a year since Banned: A social media trial was launched. And, may I say, the response and reaction from all over has been overwhelming. The truth is out there, and most importantly, my readers and viewers know it all.
The two questions that I have been asked multiple times in the course of conversations on the book are as follows:
How did I or the family survive the trauma and the abuse? And second, what helped me to get through it all, and how can I now help others who go through similar situations?
Both these questions have a very simple answer – sport and the values it teaches us. Sport teaches us how to lose. It helped me deal with the loss – in this case, trauma – recuperate and get my mojo back. Each step thereafter is a step towards success and the undoing of that loss. That’s why sport is a life lesson. It was easy for me to give up. And I did give up at one point. But then, I have studied sport for a living and it was the values associated with it that helped me all along.
The truth is, for us in sport, giving up is never an option. Staying resilient is. To borrow from Salman Rushdie – abusing me and my family was the fifteen seconds of fame for the trolls. I needed to come to terms with it and digest it. Once I did, things became easier.
Also Read: Responses to Banned a reminder of the strength sport gives us
What has been instructive is how the narrative changed. At the time of the launch, there was a degree of vitriol. How was it that someone could challenge a ‘cricketer?’ How could I say that the ‘cricketer’ was lying? In India, cricketers are holy cows and can’t make mistakes. Was I trying to break this paradigm down? Was it even possible?
As Sachin Tendulkar’s biographer, the one lesson I learnt from him was to stand up in times of adversity. I always believed that the cricketer peddling untruths in front of the world would one day become known. And that’s what happened with Banned: A social media trial.
Now, I sense acceptance. The trolls have almost given up. They know I have thick skin and will take them on. They know RevSportz can’t be stopped, and they can do little but rant. Success has never felt better.
A lot of my readers have asked me if the incident changed me as a person. The truth is, it has. I am way more cynical now. I had stopped believing in people to an extent. How could someone whom I had known and helped for years keep lying? I will never know the answer to that. But then, that’s where sport has yet again come to my rescue. If Abhinav Bindra could battle epilepsy and if Sania Mirza could take on the millions who tried to body-shame her during pregnancy, why couldn’t I deal with a narrative build on untruths?
So, here’s to more stories, more books and creating a strong legacy for RevSportz. On World Book Day, I’m delighted to announce two new projects: India’s Paralympics Revolution (Simon and Schuster 2026), with my two dear colleagues, Trisha Ghosal and Soumyajit Das Chowdhury, and the big one – the 10th anniversary edition of Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians for 2028.
Also Read: Gautam Gambhir’s straight talk while I was banned for home World Cup