Several news outlets including DNA Hindi and NBT Navbharat Times fell for a fake quote from a fake Twitter account that claimed Chennai Super Kings pacer Tushar Deshpande ridiculed Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma after taking his wicket during an Indian Premier League (IPL) game between the two sides.
The fake quote attributed to Deshpande said that he said it was 'easy' taking the MI batsman's wicket in comparison to taking Virat Kohli's or former South African cricketer AB De Villiers's wicket.
BOOM spoke to Deshpande's manager Jignesh Karia who rubbished the claim confirming that no such statement against Sharma was made by the CSK pacer.
The fake quote which is being circulated reads, "Taking Rohit Sharma's wicket is so easy, he is not someone like Virat Kohli and Ab Devilliers."
News outlets including DNA Hindi, NBT Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times carried articles attributing the fake quote to the uncapped Indian player who had bowled Sharma out for 21 during the match on April 8, 2023. CSK went on to win the match by seven wickets.
NBT Navbharat Times headline when translated read, "IPL 2023: Tushar Deshpande spoke more enthusiastically, said- It is easy to dismiss Rohit, he is not Virat or de Villiers"
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The same fake quote was also carried by DNA Hindi and Maharashtra Times.
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The fake quote is also being widely shared on Facebook.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the quote being attributed to cricketer Tushar Deshpande is fake and was originally tweeted by a fake Twitter handle that posts cricket memes.
We reached out to Tushar Deshpande's manager Jignesh Karia who confirmed that the statement is fake. "This is a fake quote being attributed to Tushar Desphande, he has not made any such statement," Karia told BOOM.
Deshpande also posted a denial on his verified Instagram handle calling the quote fake and stating, "I have absolute respect for all the legends mentioned above. I did not, and would not, make any such demeaning statements. Stop spreading fake news."
BOOM was able to trace the fake quote to the Twitter handle @mufaddel_vohra which was impersonating Mufaddal Vohra - a popular cricket enthusiast who tweets about the sport. The fake quote was tweeted on April 8, 2023.
The fake handle later deleted the tweet and changed its profile name after the tweet went viral and after many Twitter users pointed out that it was a fake handle.
Fake quote tweeted by the Twitter handle impersonating
Mufaddal Vohra The cache of the fake Twitter account can be seen below where it had previously mentioned in its profile that it is a parody account. Fake accounts usually use the word 'parody' in their bios to bypass Twitter's impersonation policy.
Click here to view the Twitter cache of the account
The handle @mufaddel_vohra has now changed its display photo and locked its account at the time of writing this fact-check.