Tamim Iqbal did not get 13 crore offer to play IPL
A claim has been circulating on social media platforms Facebook and YouTube (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) that Indian cricketer Virat Kohli has offered 13 crore Taka to Bangladesh national cricket team’s former captain Tamim Iqbal to play for Indian Premier League (IPL). However, verification by Dismislab has found that no such conversation took place between Tamim and Kohli. An old live video of the two has been cut and fake captions have been added to it.
A Facebook page, Star News, posted the 1-minute 32-second video with fake caption on March 7. The caption of the video says, “’Kohli’s direct offer to Tamim on live! Khan Saheb agrees to 13 crore Taka, will play for Bengaluru”. As of March 10, when this report was being written, the video had been viewed by 3.9 million people. It received 268,000 reactions and was shared 3,700 times. After that, such claims were posted on several YouTube channels (1, 2, 3, 4) and multiple Facebook pages (1, 2). However, no such news has been found in any mainstream media.
Dismislab’s verification has found that the video with the fake caption was created by taking clips of a live video from Tamim Iqbal’s official Facebook page. The live video was broadcast on Facebook from Tamim’s page on May 18, 2020. The 26-minute video shows Tamim initiating the conversation at the beginning. Then, Tamim asks Kohli about his and his family’s well-being. Verification of the entire 26-minute video confirms no scene or audio featuring Kohli’s offer of 13 crore Taka to Tamim Iqbal for Bengaluru. In fact, Kohli was giving Tamim advice on match preparation and batting strategy.
According to Indian media outlet India Today, Mustafizur Rahman has been selected as the only Bangladeshi cricketer in the auction for the 2024 edition of the IPL. The left-arm pacer was bought by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for 2 crore rupees in the auction held in Dubai.
A few days ago, another comment about Tamim spread on the social media platform TikTok; the comment was from AB de Villiers. Verification by Rumor Scanner revealed that the information was false.
In the past, cricket stars’ Facebook live videos have been seen to be distorted or edited to spread fake information. Fact Watch fact-checked a fake claim that Mashrafe Bin Mortaza had asked Tamim and Shakib Al Hasan to settle their differences by marrying off their children. The verification found that there was no such conversation between Mashrafe and Tamim in the live video.
