By Hazel Gandhi
A viral photo purporting to show an Indian cricket fan holding a placard supporting Pakistani captain Babar Azam over Virat Kohli, during the recent India Vs New Zealand T20 match, is morphed and fake.
BOOM found that the photo is from a 2018 Indian Premier League game and the text on the placard is edited. The original poster made no reference to Babar Azam or Kohli.
The morphed photo shows a spectator holding a placard that reads, "Sorry Virat Sir but Babar Ajam is God of Cricket for me.... #7"
The image is being shared in the context of India's ongoing T20 series against New Zealand in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
India and New Zealand are competing in a three-match T20 series in Ranchi, which began on January 27, 2023. In the first match New Zealand defeated India by 21 runs, and on January 29, India won by 6 wickets, bringing the score to an even 1-1.
The viral photo began circulating after New Zealand's win in the first match. A caption on Twitter reads, "Babar Azam fan in Ranchi India …"
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
The post is also viral on Facebook.
Click here to view.
Click here to view.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the photo is from an IPL match in 2018 and the placard originally carried a text supporting MS Dhoni over Sachin Tendulkar.
Quote tweets from one of the viral posts shared the original image with the text, "Sorry Sachin sir but M.S. Dhoni is God of cricket for me.... #7"
Click here to view.
The jersey number mentioned at the end of the viral photo is #7, whereas Babar Azam's jersey number is #56. On the other hand, MS Dhoni, for whom the placard was actually made, has the jersey number #7.
Taking a cue from this, we searched the text of the original placard and found a tweet from April 2019 that carried the same original photo. Towards the end of the tweet, we noticed the hashtag "#RRvsCSK"
Click here to view.
Considering that this photo might have appeared during an IPL match, we used relevant keywords to look for its source and found an article by DNA published on April 21, 2018 that carried the original photo.
Click here to view.
Now, instead of 2019, we used 2018 in our search which led us to ESPN Cricinfo's official website which carried the original photo.
The photo, attributed to BCCI, was taken during a Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore match on April 17, 2018 in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. It does not mention Virat Kohli or Babar Azam.
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