WAR for news turns some journalists into predators. This seems to have happened in the Wriddhiman Saha case, too. After he was dropped from the Indian Test team, Saha was gloomy and dispirited. This was the time a 'senior' and 'respected' journalist did a stick-and-carrot trick with him, says Saha.
Give me an interview and I'd help you, the journalist suggested. Saha, who is in his 38th year, had already been given an unpromising assessment of his future in Test cricket by India coach Rahul Dravid. He knew the 'respected' journalist could not do anything to help him. He did not respond to this request.
The journalist turned menacing: '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 (sic) should have done.'
In the times of smartphones and screenshots — and Twitter, on which Saha has over seven lakh followers — it was a very stupid mistake to make. Saha put up a screenshot of the threat on Twitter. He did not name the journalist, later explaining that he hid the name 'on the grounds of humanity, looking at his/her family'.
Saha's using 'his/her' for the journalist — a cute attempt at keeping even the gender of the journalist secret — did not fool Twitter. Social media was abuzz with speculation, and the name of one 'respected' journalist — male — trended on Twitter. This journalist, whose Twitter feed is packed with his opinions on developments in Indian cricket, didn't respond to the Saha threat controversy. Twitterati mined the journalist's posts and came up with 'evidence' — he also typed 'ypu' instead of 'you' when he was worked up!
'Race to show off'
'Publicity-hungry people who were in a race to show off who knew more.' This is what Yuvraj Singh wrote about one 'senior' journalist, who let him down when Yuvraj was at his most vulnerable — diagnosed with cancer and getting treatment for it.
Yuvraj wrote in 'The Test of My Life': 'Then one day I got to know that two guys who I thought were my friends had helped themselves to some publicity on the back of my cancer. One was an Indian journalist whose name I don't wish to take because it's just the kind of publicity he would like to feed on, who used my BlackBerry updates to deliver this bit of breaking news on television as an exclusive scoop. Among the many roles he performed, this man was also some kind of an extension of the Pune Warriors management, which was now the IPL team I played for. As we needed to stay in touch, I had shared my BBM pin with him. He used my BlackBerry Messenger status to update the entire country that I was so weak I couldn't even type, and that I had cancer.'
The journalist who let Yuvraj down and the one who threatened Saha is believed to be the same person — from Bengal, an academic before he became a journalist, now a shrill voice on TV. When the Saha controversy erupted, his was the first name that came to the mind of most sports writers.
Journalists question even greats such as Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, so why not a fellow scribe accused of serious wrongdoing? I texted him on WhatsApp for a response, and though he read the messages, he didn't respond; I called him, and he said he was busy and would call back — and never did.
Years ago, working on an article on conflict of interest, I'd asked him if he was also working for the Pune IPL franchisee, as was widely believed — and as Yuvraj later confirmed in his book; he said such talk had reached even his boss at the TV channel he was working for, but it was untrue.
Journalists may write the first draft of history, but let's face it, they're just messengers. It's terrible when they turn into vultures feeding on the misery of individuals, just for the sake of an exclusive. Newshounds are useful when they bite someone during the course of an investigation conducted for the public good. This certainly wasn't the case in the hounding of Saha. Beyond conjecture, only Saha is in a position to reveal the name of the journalist in question. Hope he would do that during the BCCI's probe into the matter.
