By Srijit Das
Social media posts claiming Afghan cricketer Naveen Ul Haq tweeted an apology to his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli after the two were involved in a public spat during an Indian Premier League (IPL) game earlier this month, is fake.
The posts contain a screenshot of a tweet by the user @mufaddal_vohra6 with an image of Naveen Ul Haq from a post-match press conference with text claiming, "Naveen Ul Haq said "My sincere apologies to Virat Kohli Sir. He's the Brand of Cricket and I'm not even dust of his Foot"(sic)."
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bowler Naveen Ul Haq recently had an on-field spat with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batsmans Virat Kohli on May 1 in an IPL group stage match. The controversy carried on as the duo later took the battle to social media and were fined their match fees for violating the IPL code of conduct. Eventually, the incident sparked a troll fest on social media and sparring between LSG and RCB supporters. The clash between the two players also saw Kohli involved in a heated exchange with LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir.
Some Facebook users posted the tweet screenshot amid the controversy and claimed that Haq has "apologised" to Kohli.
Click here to view the post.
Click here to view the post.
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the quote attributed to Naveen Ul Haq is fake and was tweeted by a parody account.
We first ran a search in the name of "@mufaddal_vohra6" on Twitter and found that the account is a parody handle of a Twitter profile named Mufaddal Vohra who tweets frequently about cricket-related updates. The same is mentioned in the bio section of "@mufaddal_vohra6" Twitter handle. It reads, "Parody account of Mufa".
Meanwhile Mufaddal Vohra's original account has a verified blue tick on Twitter.
We were also unable to find any credible news report stating that Naveen Ul Haq rendered an apology to Kohli after the heated argument.
On the contrary, we found that Haq took a dig at Virat Kohli on multiple occasions; he also posted a cryptic message on his Instagram story after the May 1 match saying, "You get what you deserve that's how it should be and that's how it goes".
Virat Kohli also shared a similar cryptic post on his Instagram story after the high-voltage match between LSG and RCB that reads, "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
Haq again posted a set of two Instagram stories trolling the RCB's struggle against Mumbai Indians (MI) on May 9 match and uploaded pictures of the cricketing battle with a set of mangoes as Kohli scored 1 off 4.
The clash went on as the Afghan cricketer shared a cryptic video of a Ghana anchor seen laughing as the RCB got eliminated from the IPL 2023's playoff race on May 21 after conceding a defeat to Gujarat Titans. We also found recent news articles about Naveen Ul Haq's reactions to the taunts by Virat Kohli fans during the IPL eliminator match on May 24 between Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants.
A report by The Indian Express published on May 25, 2023, quoted the Afghan pacer as saying, "I enjoy it. I like everyone in the ground chanting his (Virat Kohli) name or any other player’s name. It gives me passion to play well for my team. Well I don’t concentrate on the outside or the noise from outside or anything else. I just focus on my own cricket and my own process. Crowd chanting or anyone saying something doesn’t affect me. As professional sportsmen you have to take this in your stride. One do when you don’t good for your team, fans are going to give it to you. And when you do good for your team, same people are going to chant your name. Basically this is part and parcel of the game."
BOOM also reached out to Naveen Ul Haq's spokesperson for further comments about the viral statement.
In an email reply, Haq's spokesperson said, "Naveen never had post any comment whatsoever on anything from his verified social media accounts. So what is going on in media is not our problem."
This is not the first time BOOM has debunked a fake quote originating from an account impersonating Mufaddal Vohra. The story can be read here.
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