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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Sports fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about sports. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,766 published reviews in this topic

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

ලංකාව 20-20 ලෝක කුසලාන ජයග්‍රහණය කරන බවට ඉන්දියානු රිෂිවරයෙකුගේ අනාවැකියක්?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review investigated a social-media post attributing a prediction about the 2022 T20 World Cup to an Indian fortune-teller named “Jaddi Thumaskar Jadidir.” The post purportedly said India would be eliminated in the preliminary round and that Sri Lanka would defeat another finalist to win the tournament. The review describes the post as circulating on Facebook and presents the forecast as the claim it set out to check. (The original excerpt states: “20-20 ලෝක කුසලානයේ ජයග්‍රහණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජඩ්ඩි තුමස්කර් ජඩිදිර් නමැති ඉන්දියාවේ අනාවැකි පළ කරන්නෙකු විසින් කළ ප්‍රකාශයක් ලෙසට සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ සටහනක් සංසරණය වුණා.”) The publisher reports that it searched for information about a predictor by that name and found no record of one. It also used reverse-image search on the photograph presented as the predictor, finding that it was a stock image representing Indian priests rather than evidence identifying the supposed forecaster. Those checks challenge both the attribution and the image used to lend the post credibility. (The excerpt says: “එනමින් අනාවැකි පළ කරන්නෙකු පිළිබඳ කිසිදු සටහනක් හෝ තොරතුරක් අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ කළ නිරීක්ෂණයේදී දැක ගන්නට නොලැබුණි.” It also reports: “නමුත් එම ඡායාරූපය අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ ඉන්දීය පූජක වරයන් නියෝජනය කරන ඡායාරූපයක් (stock image) පමණක් බවට දැක ගන්නට ලැබු‍ණේ මෙලෙසින් හා මෙලෙසින්.”) The review additionally says it consulted the Indian Fact Crescendo team. According to the article, that team confirmed it knew of no Indian predictor by the stated name and had no report of such a person making the forecast. The investigation therefore found no substantiation for the post’s attribution; it does not establish who created the post. The article also situates the claim in the tournament schedule, noting that the competition in Australia was due to begin with Sri Lanka versus Namibia on the 16th, with the Super 12 stage scheduled to start on the 22nd. (The excerpt reports: “ඔවුන් තහවුරු කළේ ද, එනමින් ඉන්දියාවේ අනාවැකි පළ කරන්නෙකු නොමැති බවට හා එවන් ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු කළ බවට පුද්ගලයෙකු හෝ එහිදී වාර්තා නොවූ බවයි.”)

FACTLYSports

South African cricketer David Miller’s daughter lost her life to cancer

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a social-media post showing South African cricketer David Miller with a young girl and identifying her as his daughter who had died of cancer. FACTLY’s review says the girl was Ane, a fan of Miller, and that she—not Miller’s daughter—had died of cancer. To investigate, FACTLY reports conducting an internet keyword search and finding news reports about Ane. It says a photograph in an Indian Express report matched the image circulating in the post. The review also points to Miller’s Instagram video featuring pictures of him and Ane, captioned “RIP you little rockstar,” and a story in which he expressed that he would miss her. The review further quotes sports writer Abhishek Kumar clarifying that Ane was Miller’s fan and well-wisher, not his daughter. Taken together, the review’s cited reporting, image comparison and descriptions of Miller’s posts distinguish his relationship with Ane from the claim made in the viral post.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

සුපිරි ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩක ඩේවිඩ් මිලර්ගේ දියණිය ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත් වුණා ද?

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim under review was that South African cricketer David Miller’s daughter had died after a long struggle with cancer. The investigation says the claim circulated after Miller shared a moving video and message about a child, prompting some fans and media outlets to interpret the child as his daughter. It reports that Miller was in Ranchi, India, for the India–South Africa one-day series when he shared the post on October 8. The review’s conclusion is that the child was Anne, a young fan who had been close to Miller, not his daughter. [S1] To examine the reports, the publisher says it first checked whether international media had reported the death and found those reports relied on Miller’s own social-media posts. It then describes contrary accounts from fans and sports journalists, who said the child was a fan and well-wisher, and cites online cricket analyst Mufaddal Vohra’s post identifying her as Anne. The review also points to an earlier Instagram photograph: it says Miller had posted a picture of Anne with cupcakes in March 2017, when she was five and battling cancer. [S1] The misleading interpretation arose because the emotional post did not, by itself, establish that the child was Miller’s daughter. The review says media outlets and fans inferred that relationship and that sports.breeze later corrected its own post after Miller clarified that the child was not his daughter. The supplied excerpt does not include the archived social-media posts themselves, so those details are reported here as the investigation describes them. [S1]

FACTLYSports

Argentinian professional footballer Lionel Messi’s childhood picture.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a photo circulated as a real childhood picture of Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi. FACTLY reports that the image instead shows Juan Ignacio Martínez, a boy cast as Messi during childhood in the 2014 film *Messi*. It therefore depicts an actor in a film, not Messi himself as a child. The review says the image was a working still from the film and identifies the director as Álex de la Iglesia. [S1: “The photo shared in the post shows a still from the 2014 documentary film ‘Messi’. The photo shows Juan Ignacio Martinez, a boy who played Messi’s childhood character in the Álex de la Iglesia-directed ‘Messi’ film.”] The review describes checking the circulated image with a reverse image search. It says that search found the same photo in an article on Benditofutbal.com, which described it as a working still from the film. The image description there identifies Martínez in the role of Messi as a child. These details provide a direct connection between the circulated photo and the film production, rather than evidence that the photo was taken during Messi’s actual childhood. [S1: “On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in an article published by the ‘Benditofutbal.com’ website. This article described it is working still from the Álex de la Iglesia-directed ‘Messi‘ documentary film. The description of the photo states, ‘Juan Ignacio Martínez in the role of Lionel Messi when he was a child’“] FACTLY also reports that Martínez shared some of his working stills from the film on Instagram and that it compared the circulated image with separate childhood pictures of Messi. The review’s conclusion rests on the film-still identification and the boy’s role in the production: the image’s resemblance to Messi as a child is explained by its being a depiction of him by an actor, not a photograph of Messi himself. [S1: “Juan Ignacio Martínez himself shared a few of his working stills from the film ‘Messi’ on his Instagram page.”] [S1: “A few childhood pictures of Lionel Messi can be seen here, and here.”]

FACTLYSports

South African cricketer Wayne Parnell recently converted to Islam along with his family

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a social-media post suggesting that South African cricketer Wayne Parnell had recently converted to Islam together with his family. The review’s investigation instead places his conversion years earlier, before he married Aisha Baker. It says Parnell converted in 2011 and married Baker in 2016, so the timing in the post does not fit the documented chronology described by the review. For its check, the review says it searched for reporting on whether Parnell had converted and found sports and news articles published in 2011. It also quotes Parnell directly: he said he converted in January 2011 after personal study and reflection. The review reports that he changed his name to Waleed Wayne Parnell after converting. Together, the dated reporting and his quoted account support the conclusion that the conversion was not recent. The family timeline further clarifies what the post may have conflated: Parnell and Baker married in May 2016, had a son in May 2018, and had a second child in July 2021. The review identifies the image used in the post as a family picture Parnell shared on 3 May 2022. It therefore distinguishes the later family photo from the much earlier conversion, rather than treating the image as evidence that Parnell and his family had recently converted.

FACTLYSports

Video shows a crowd singing a song related to the Lord Ram during the T20 cricket match between India and Australia on 25 September 2022 in Hyderabad

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video said to show spectators singing “Bharat ka baccha baccha jai shri ram bolega” during the India–Australia third T20 match at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on 25 September 2022. FACTLY’s review says the video was not from that match: it was filmed at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, where the second T20 match took place on 23 September. The review therefore separates the video’s location from the claim about its audio; it says the audio’s authenticity could not be confirmed. (S1: “A video is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows a crowd singing a song related to the Lord Ram (“Bharat ka baccha baccha jai shri ram bolega”) during the third T20 match between India and Australia on 25 September 2022 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad.”; “The video was shot at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur.”; “We could not confirm the authenticity of the audio in the posted video.”) The review describes two checks supporting its location finding. Reverse image searches of screenshots led to copies of the same video described as being from Nagpur. It also compared the stadium visible in the footage with the two venues: the stands in the video match Nagpur’s mostly covered stands, rather than Hyderabad’s mostly uncovered ones. (S1: “When the screenshots of the video were run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same video was found to be posted by multiple people with the description that the video is related to Nagpur.”; “The visuals in the video match with the Nagpur stadium (where stands are mostly covered), not Hyderabad stadium (where stands are mostly not covered).”) The chronology further weighs against the Hyderabad attribution: the review says an archived tweet shows the same video online by 24 September, a day before the Hyderabad match. That does not establish what the audio in the posted video contains. The review notes that an older video with the same audio exists and suggests it may have been added to the Nagpur footage, but expressly does not confirm that explanation. Its firm conclusion is about the visuals’ location, not verification of the song or sound. (S1: “Also, the same video is on the internet at least from 24 September 2022 (tweet archived) whereas the match in Hyderabad was held on on 25 September 2022.”; “Another old video with the same audio can be seen here. Most probably the audio from this video might have been picked and added to the current viral video. Hence, we could not confirm the authenticity of the audio in the posted video even though it is from Nagpur.”)

FACTLYSports

Photo shows Muzammil Bota, an Afghanistan cricketer who passed away recently

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a circulated photo said to show Muzammil Bota, who had recently died, as an Afghanistan cricketer. FACTLY’s review accepts that the person pictured was named Muzammil Bota and that he had died, but disputes the description of his sport and country: it identifies him as a Pakistani kabaddi player, not an Afghanistan cricketer. The review therefore finds that the claim gives a misleading account of who he was. To check the photo’s identity, the review notes a “Thru Media” logo on the image and says an uncropped version appeared on Thru Media’s social-media page. It reports that comments on that post identified the person as Muzammil Bota and a Pakistani kabaddi player. The review also points to posts about his death from the International Kabaddi Club Facebook page; it describes those posts as identifying him with kabaddi rather than cricket. As further corroboration, the review cites a tweet from Geo TV sports correspondent Sohail Imran, who attributed the death report to the Pakistan Kabaddi Federation and described Muzamil Botha as an international kabaddi player. Taken together, the image’s social-media trail and the cited death reports support the review’s distinction: the person and death in the claim are not denied, but the claimed Afghanistan-cricketer identity is contradicted.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaSports

නවතම ලෝක ටෙස්ට් ශූරතාවලි ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීමේ දී ලංකාව දෙවන ස්ථානයට?

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned social-media posts saying Sri Lanka had moved into second place in the World Test Championship (WTC) table after England beat South Africa in the third Test of their series. The review says it checked those posts against the ICC’s official WTC table. That check placed Sri Lanka third, not second, with Australia first and South Africa second.

FACTLYSports

Video of a Muslim woman boxer preventing the referee from holding her hand during match winner announcement because of her religious beliefs

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a clip in which a Muslim woman boxer initially appears to prevent the referee from holding her hand as the match winner is announced. The review identifies the boxer as Kholova of Tajikistan and describes the bout as a semi-final in the Asian U22 Boxing Championship flyweight category, between Kholova and Uzbekistan’s Kazakova Feruza. Its central finding is that the clip leaves out what happens moments later: Kholova does allow the referee to hold her hand during the announcement. That continuation contradicts the impression that the video shows her refusing throughout the announcement for religious reasons. To investigate, the review says it used reverse-image searches on keyframes from the viral clip and located a full-length video of the bout on SPORT LIVE’s YouTube channel. It reports that at 3:00 Kholova covers her face and becomes emotional; she initially refuses the referee’s hand, then allows him to hold it at 3:14. The review further says the referee announces Kazakova as the winner and that the boxers greet each other and their opponent’s coaches. The available account supports the narrower conclusion that the viral excerpt omits Kholova’s later acceptance; it does not establish her motive for initially refusing.