Mumbai: Mohammed Azharuddeen scored a century in just 37 balls against Mumbai in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in Mumbai. The ton made Azharuddeen an overnight sensation and viral on social media, while former Indian opener Virender Sehwag and commentator Harsha Bhogle appreciated the 26-year-old’s efforts. Ever since then many have started appreciating him by sharing a morphed news cutout.
A page called ‘The Ghatiya Show’ on Facebook has shared the news cutout condemning the headline, “Kerala born Muslim boy blasts Mumbai,”
FactO Check:
We searched for sub-heading “The Kasargod-born cricketer is the first player to score a T20 century in domestic cricket for the Kerala team.” in the viral screenshot on Google, and we came across the original article published by The News Minute on the 14th of January. The heading was “Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored a century in 37 balls wins hearts” with the same Feature image.
Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief, The News Minute has also clarified the same on her Twitter account when the morphed photo went viral on social media.
Extremely disappointed with people who made a fake screenshot, even more disappointed with journalists here spreading it. This was our original headline. If nothing else, have some trust that we would not have such a headline pic.twitter.com/5JHJEs3S8h
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) January 16, 2021
Conclusion: The viral image of a news article headline “Kerala born Muslim boy blasts Mumbai” is found to be morphed and missleading.