Old image taken during ICC WTC2023 is falsely shared as IND-PAK match
Claim
Congress supporters are watching match with Tricolour flag. BJP supporters are watching a match with the BJP flag. This is a clear difference in Ideology.
Rating
Explanation
In the above viral tweet, we were able to see people watching cricket from a balcony. At one end of the right we can spot the India tricolour flag hanging down and the other end of left we can see BJP party’s flag held by some people. This image was shared by users, with a claim that the Congress supporters watch the match with India flag and the BJP supporters are having their BJP party flags while watching the game.
They further added that this is the clear difference between the ideology. Some users, even went on to mock that, is India playing the cricket or the BJP party people playing the cricket? These posts with similar claims can be seeb here, here, here and here.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research using the simple Google reverse image process, we found out that the image was origianlly uploaded by India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai on Twitter, with the caption, “Spotted at the Oval: just a reminder, this is India Vs Australia folks! #WTC2023”.
Moreover, this image is taken earlier this year from June 2023, ICC World Test Championship final between India and Australia at The Oval cricket ground in London, United Kingdom.
When we dug a little deep we found an article published by “The Free Press Journal” with a title “WTC Final: BJP Flag At The Oval Draws Mixed Reactions From Fans, Sparks Political Debate Among Netizens.” This article was published on 7 June, 2023 and the photo was also taken on the same day. This image was taken on the first day of the match 7 June 2023, and the whole game ended on 11 June 2023, where Australia won the match by 209 runs against India.
This image went viral immediately and divided the people in two groups on the social media. One set of people started criticising the BJP party for bringing their political flag for a sports match and the other set of people supported them, admiring their passion towards the party. Eventhough, International Cricket Council rule states that no political messages are entertained during the matches, the committee has kept quiet and not commented on the incident still.
This proves that the old image from 7 June 2023, has again found its way on top of the domain with misleading and confusing claims on social media platforms.
Conclusion:
Therefore, this proves after our intense research that the image is old and taken during ICC World Test Championship final between India and Australia at The Oval cricket ground in London, United Kingdom on 7 June 2023. This image is shared with out of context and circulated with misleading claims by the social media users.
