By: Rajini KG
August 23 2023
Video of Zimbabwean cricketers dancing to ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants is digitally manipulated
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
Zimbabwean players were dancing to a different song in their native language after winning a match in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022.
Claim ID 4b780a64
Context
A video of Zimbabwean male cricketers dancing in a stadium is doing the rounds on social media with the claim that the players danced to a song hailing Hindu god Ram after defeating Pakistan. A post on X (formerly Twitter) sharing the video (archive here) wrote: "When Zimbabwe defeated Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, then they danced on the song Bharath Ka Baccha Baccha Jai Shri Ram Bolega (every child in India will say Jai Shri Ram), but the traitors say the song hurts their feelings?..."
The 30-second clip begins with a woman speaking to the camera and making the same claim about the players dancing to a song praising the Hindu god. Around 12 seconds into the video, members of the Zimbabwean cricket team can be seen dancing as the chants of 'Jai Shri Ram (Hail lord Ram)" reverberate in the background. The video has been widely shared by users on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. The archive of the post can be found here, and here .
Screengrab of viral posts (Source:X/@Bitt2DA/Facebook/यदुवंशी बाजीराव पारकना/Instagram/haveri_le/Altered by Logically Facts)
However, the Zimbabwean team did not dance to the 'Jai Shri Ram' chants or any song hailing the Hindu god.
In fact
Through a reverse image search, we found that the video was recorded during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022. The account 'Zimbabwe Cricket' had posted a 140-second-long video on October 28, 2022, on X. Captioned "Celebrating yet another terrific performance! #PAKvZIM | #T20WorldCup," the video showed the cricketers celebrating on the field.
Around the 0:40 timestamp, the same viral clip of Zimbabwe players dancing could be spotted. However, the audio does not match the one in the now-viral video. They sang and danced to a different song, possibly in their native language. We found the longer version of the clip on the official X account of 'CricketTimes.com'—a website dedicated to cricket updates. This video was also shared on October 28, 2022.
In a report published the same day, India Today said that Zimbabwe players and staff celebrated their surprise victory over Pakistan in the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup on October 27, 2022. The report also included the video shared by Zimbabwe Cricket on X. Pacer Richard Ngarava appears to be the main singer as skipper Craig Ervine showed some dance moves, the report added.
CricTracker, an Indian cricket news website, reported that during the celebrations, the players formed a circle, and then Ervine, members of the coaching staff, and Hamilton Masakadza broke out into a dance. It added that Ngarava sang a song in their native language (Shona and Ndebele are the most widely spoken languages in the African nation) and took the initiative to invite every player and member forward for a couple of dance steps.
Multiple social media users shared the original video of the players, in which the players can be heard singing and dancing to a different song, not a song about the Hindu god Ram. All this evidence establishes that chants of 'Jai Shri Ram' was added digitally to the original video.
The verdict
A song hailing Hindu god Ram was artificially added to a video from 2022 of Zimbabwe cricket players dancing and singing after winning a match. The edited video was shared with a false narrative.