Claim: A video shows Indian and Pakistani cricketers breaking into a fight at Sharjah stadium.
Fact: The viral clip is fake; it contains several visual inconsistencies. Additionally, the footage was traced to an account that posts AI-generated content.
A video was shared online with the following caption: “fight between pakistani and indian cricket team at sharjah.”
The audio in the clip appears to be of a commentator, who says, “Tempers have boiled over here at the national stadium. A scuffle breaking out between Pakistan and India right in the middle of the pitch. The two batters nose to nose, shouting in each other’s faces. Teammates are rushing in. Look at the umpires trying to split them, bas karo, bas karo [Stop it, stop it].”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check identified several visual inconsistencies in the viral clip, including distorted movements with overlapping hands as the clip progresses. An extended hand appears in the video. AI struggles to replicate realistic human hands because fingers, palms, joints, and tendons are intricately connected, and AI must learn their spatial relationships and natural variations. Hands also differ widely between individuals in size, shape, and proportion, making generalisation difficult. Additionally, publicly available images often show hands obscured or from varying angles, further complicating accurate modelling.
Additionally, the term ‘Pakistan’ appears scrambled on the jersey of one player visible in the frame. AI models are trained on millions of images, but don’t actually understand letters or words as distinct objects. They learn that text-like shapes often appear in certain places, such as on signs or posters, and try to mimic those patterns. As a result, the text they generate usually looks real at first glance but appears distorted or incorrect when examined closely.
Soch Fact Check then reverse-searched keyframes from the clip and traced it to a video posted by an account named “JhatkaAi” on 14 November. A review of the account’s About section indicated that it shares content created with AI. Further examination of recent posts confirmed that several videos on the account were created using AI.
Virality
The claim was shared on Facebook here (archive) and here (archive).
On TikTok, it was shared here (archive).
Conclusion: A viral video purportly showing a fight between Indian and Pakistani cricketers is fake.
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Background image in cover photo: Geo Sports
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