A video purportedly showing Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vice President Rajeev Shukla saying the board asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to convince Pakistan to play India on February 15, 2026 is digitally altered and fake.
BOOM found that the viral video has been doctored with an AI generated voice-over. In the original press byte, Shukla had praised the ICC for facilitating talks with the Pakistan and Bangladesh cricket boards and arriving at an amicable solution that ensures the match in Colombo goes ahead.
The Pakistan government had announced that it would boycott its Group A match against India despite allowing its team to travel to Sri Lanka for the T20 World Cup. In the February 1 statement, the Pakistani government stated the team would not take the field against India on February 15. However, after ICC facilitated talks involving Pakistan and Bangladesh cricket board officials and Pakistan later withdrew its boycott decision
The Claim: Video shows Rajeev Shukla admitting that BCCI asked ICC to convince Pakistan to play India
The video is being shared on X with the caption, "Rajiv Shukla statement is a slap in the face to those Indians who were propagate that Pakistan has bowed down to the #BCCI & #ICC. Infact Pakistan had slapped India by refusing to play #INDvsPAK and told them the truth."
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What We Found:
1) AI Deepfake Voice Detection Tool Result:
We ran the 1.01 minutes video through DeepFake-O-Meter by UB Media Forensics Lab. The tool results confirmed that the voice in the viral video was overlaid onto the original video. The tool confirmed the use of AI, with one of its result giving it a fake probability of 99.1%.
2) Original Rajeev Shukla press byte
In the original press interaction on February 10, 2025, Shukla praises the ICC for facilitating talks with the Pakistan and Bangladesh cricket boards and reaching an amicable solution that allowed the February 15 match in Colombo to be held. He does not say anything resembling the claim in the viral video that the BCCI asked the ICC to convince Pakistan to play India.
3) Shukla dismisses Deepfake
Shukla also dismissed the viral video in an X post on February 11, stating that his original remarks had been manipulated using AI.
In another post, Shukla tagged former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, who hosts the sports show Har Lamha Purjosh on ARY News, accusing them of broadcasting the AI-generated audio.
