A clip featuring Pakistan men’s Cricket team captain Babar Azam is viral on social media where he can be seen wearing a saffron scarf around his neck. The video is being shared with the claim that the Pakistani Cricket team was greeted upon landing in India for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup with these ‘Bhagwa Gamchhas’ (Saffron Scarves).
Several Hindutva outfits and Right Wing political parties recognize the colour saffron as a symbol of Hindutva or the Hindu nationalist ideology.
X (formerly Twitter) Blue user Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) shared the viral clip of Babar Azam with a saffron scarf on September 28 with the following caption: “New Bharat- Video of Pakistan Cricket Team players, upon arrival in India, greeted with BHAGWA Gamchas has gone viral on SM”. The tweet has received over 3 lakh 46,000 views and has been retweeted over 800 times. (Archive)
Readers must note that the user, MeghUpdates, has been found sharing misinformation frequently on social media.
New Bharat- Video of Pakistan Cricket Team players, upon arrival in India, greeted with BHAGWA Gamchas has gone viral on SM pic.twitter.com/0thJlSizM1
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) September 28, 2023
RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya also posted the 17-second viral clip of the Pakistani Cricket captain on X with a caption in Hindi that can be translated as: “Pakistani players are being welcomed in India with saffron gamchha. The Pakistani cricket team has reached India to play the World Cup”. The tweet has received over 55,000 views and has been retweeted over 600 times. (Archive)
पाकिस्तानी खिलाड़ियों का भगवा गमछा पहनाकर भारत में स्वागत।
वर्ल्ड कप खेलने भारत पहुंची है पाकिस्तानी क्रिकेट टीम। pic.twitter.com/0tRymdV5VM
— Panchjanya (@epanchjanya) September 28, 2023
Several other users and pages such as @Indian_Analyzer, @asliarpita, and @KrishanGahlot_ shared the viral clip with the above claim on X and Facebook.
Fact Check
First, we ran a relevant keyword search that led us to several news reports of the Pakistani Cricket team’s arrival in India for the World Cup. We came across a TOI report where some players of the Pakistani Cricket team spoke about the warm welcome they had received on their landing at the Hyderabad airport.
The report carried a tweet by Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB), the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Pakistani Cricket Board. The tweet consisted of a 2.46-minute-long video showcasing the arrival of the Pakistani Men’s Cricket Team in India after seven years. We found the same video on their official YouTube channel as well.
In the video, fans can be seen present in huge numbers in the airport area chanting Pakistani skipper Babar Azam’s name and wishing for Pakistan’s victory in the World Cup. After the departure of the team from the airport, at the 1.08 mark of the video, the team can be seen being welcomed at the Park Hyatt hotel, Hyderabad. At the 1.19 mark of the video, the Pakistani team can be seen walking with scarves around their necks of several colours, not just saffron/orange. Some can be seen wearing blue, green, purple, pink, etc.
Therefore, the claim that the Pakistani Men’s Cricket team was greeted with saffron scarves after they landed in India is false. The clip featuring the Pakistani skipper Babar Azam is being shared without context.
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