Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Kaif, and Yogi Adityanath’s Kumbh posturing in UP assembly

In the speech in Uttar Pradesh assembly on February 19, in which chief minister Yogi Adityanath rejected the report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the water at the Ganga Triveni sangam in Prayagraj being currently ‘unsafe’ for bathing, he also vociferously refuted allegations made by various opposition leaders about the UP government’s ‘failure’ to manage and organise the Kumbh Mela properly.

In this context, Adityanath claimed in the assembly that Indian cricketer Mohammad Shami had taken a holy dip at the Maha Kumbh. He said, “There is no basis in the allegations of discrimination at the Maha Kumbh. Cricketer Mohammed Shami also took a holy dip.”

Fact Check

We conducted multiple keyword searches but found no news reports regarding Indian cricketer Mohammad Shami’s visit to the 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh or his participation in the ritualistic dip. We went through Shami’s social media timelines as well, but we did not find anything regarding his visit to the Kumbh Mela.

Readers would agree that with the kind of national and international media attention the Kumbh has received, such an incident as a star cricketer’s visit to the Mela would have surely made into news reports.

Moreover, we found that on January 11, 2025, India announced their 15-member squad for the five-match T20 series against England with fast bowler Mohammad Shami included in the lineup. The series began at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on January 22. The Indian team arrived in Kolkata on January 18. After the concluding match at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on February 2, India played three ODIs in Nagpur, Cuttack and Ahmedabad on February 6, 9 and 12. Subsequently, the team departed for Dubai on Saturday, February 15, to participate in the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025. Shami is a part of the squad for this tournament as well. 

The 2025 Praygraj Maha Kumbh started from January 13 and will conclude on February 26. 

The timeline of the events suggests that Mohammad Shami has been actively engaged in national team commitments almost non-stop since January 18, making it unlikely that he visited the 2025 Prayagraj Maha Kumbh during this period. And as mentioned earlier, there is no media report or publicly available information of him visiting the Kumbh. 

Akhilesh’s Name-Change Quip

Hours after Adityanath’s speech in the UP assembly, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav shared a cryptic post on X. It said, “अब क्या क्रिकेटर का भी नाम बदल दिया?” (Has he how changed the name of a cricketer?”)

अब क्या क्रिकेटर का भी नाम बदल दिया?

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 19, 2025

While the tweet did not say anything else, it was quickly interpreted as Akhilesh taking a dig at Adityanath for the latter having confused former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif with Mohammad Shami. Several media houses claimed the same. Here are a few headlines:

Did Mohammad Kaif Visit the Kumbh?

No. Well, likely not.  

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif shared a photo of himself plunging into the Yamuna in Prayagraj nearly two weeks before the Maha Kumbh began on January 13. On December 29, 2024, Kaif posted a video on X where he could be seen taking a plunge into the river. He wrote in the caption that “I learnt how to swim in this very same Yamuna”.

Abe isi Jamuna ji mein tairaki seekha hoon 😀 #sangam #prayagraj pic.twitter.com/yVs67yJMWb

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) December 29, 2024

Just like in the case of Shami, there is no media report or publicly available information of Kaif taking a dip at the Kumbh Mela.

So, the claims by a section of the media that it was Mohammad Kaif who had taken a dip at the Kumbh and Adityanath confused him with Mohammad Shami, is misleading, to say the least, if not factually incorrect.

AI Images of ‘Shami at Kumbh’

Alt News would like to inform its readers that several AI-generated pictures of Mohammad Shami with tennis star Sania Mirza are currently viral on social media platforms. In one such picture, Shami is seen wearing a saffron stole, and the caption reads, “Sania Mirza with Mohammad Shami in Maha Kumbh ai pic”.

In another picture, Shami has a tilak (sandalwood-paste marking used by Hindus on auspicious occasions) on his forehead and he is again seen with Sania Mirza. Even this picture has a similar caption.

The Facebook page that has uploaded these pictures mentions that they are AI-generated. We are not attaching the images here to stop their amplification further.