Fact Check: Viral image showing Pakistani cricket team members with 5kg wheat and 5kg rice is computer-generated
After almost six weeks of continuous matches, wins and losses, league matches have come to an end, entering the final stage of the tournament.
Claim :
Pakistani team reaches Pakistan bearing 5kg wheat and 5kg rice from India given by the Indian governmentFact :
The image is a computer-generated image, shared on social media as a meme
After almost six weeks of huge (use a better word.. say something like continuous) matches, wins and losses, league matches have come to an end, entering the final stage of the tournament. The Pakistan cricket team has performed very poorly in the World Cup. After winning the first matches, they have faced defeat in four consecutive matches.
After their successive losses, the Pakistan team faced a lot of backlash. Meanwhile, several memes have been generated mocking the team’s performance in the World Cup. One such image showing the Pakistani team wearing their team jerseys bearing heavy bags on their heads is going viral with a claim that Pakistani team players were provided with 5 kg wheat and 5 kg rice by the Indian government.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The image is a computer-generated image shared across social media platforms as a meme.
When we observed the image carefully, we could see that the faces of the persons in the image were almost the same. The letters on the jerseys of the players and also the letters on the bags being carried by them are also not clear but smudged.
When searched for reports of the Pakistan team returning back to Pakistan, we could see few videos.
A user named Mufaddal Vohra posted a video of Pakistan team captain Babar Azam and others returning to Pakistan with the caption: “Pakistan team have reached Pakistan after finishing the World Cup.”
The news of Babar Azam reaching Lahore after failing in the World Cup was also shared on the YouTube channel of Dunya News. The title of the video is ‘Babar Azam reaches Lahore after dismal World Cup performance | Dunya News’. The description of the video states Pakistan team captain Babar Azam returned to Lahore from Dubai in the wee hours of Monday after a dismal performance at the World Cup where his side failed to reach the semi-finals of the mega event. Babar Azam along with some members of team and management reached Lahore from Dubai by a private airline. The captain of the national team was escorted to his car under strict security. The fans who gathered at the airport chanted slogans in favour of the Pakistan team. Pakistan team failed to reach the semi-finals and finished fifth in the mega event where they won only four matches and lost five.
The video was also shared by an article published by latestly.com, with the title ‘Babar Azam receives warm welcome after reaching Pakistan following green shirts fifth place finish in ICC cricket world cup 2023, video goes viral.’
Therefore, the image showing the Pakistani team carrying huge bags of rice and wheat after reaching Pakistan is a hoax, it is a computer-generated image. The claim shared is False.
