Claim of Bangladeshi cricketer calling for boycott of Indian league shares fabricated video
- Published on January 23, 2026 at 08:59
- Updated on January 23, 2026 at 09:13
- 2 min read
- By Eyamin SAJID, AFP Bangladesh
After Bangladeshi cricketer Mustafizur Rahman was released from his team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in January 2026 due to tensions between the neighbouring nations, a fabricated video circulated online with a false claim it showed him saying he would never play in the league again. The clip's visuals are manipulated from an old video by him and dubbed with a soundtrack made using AI.
"IPL boycott," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post published on January 5, 2026.
It shares an 11-second clip that appears to show Mustafizur saying, "Thank you to the people of Bangladesh who love me so much! Boycott the IPL. I will never play in the IPL again. An insult to me is an insult to my country."
The video -- which has racked up half a million views -- surfaced online following the cricketer's removal from the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on January 3 (archived link).
Devajit Saikia, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said that "considering recent developments" Kolkata were "advised to release" the 30-year-old.
Mustafizur had played in the IPL for other teams before he was picked up by the KKR in a December 2025 auction for more than $1 million.
Political relations between India and Bangladesh soured after a mass uprising in 2024 toppled former Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi (archived link).
India's foreign ministry has condemned what it called "unremitting hostility against minorities" in Muslim-majority Bangladesh (archived link).
Indian media reported at least 11 Hindus have been killed in Bangladesh since December 2025, including the lynching of a Hindu garment worker Dipu Chandra Das after he was accused of blasphemy (archived here and here).
In turn, Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence.
The video was shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook.
After Mustafizur was released from the team, Bangladeshi outlet BDCricTime quoted him as saying, "If they release me, there's nothing much I can do." (archived link)
But AFP cannot find credible media reports of him making the remarks heard in the false video, and the clip's audio shows signs it was fabricated.
Words heard at the beginning are repeated in exactly the same way at the end of the video, while analysis of the clip's soundtrack using Hiya -- an AI voice cloning detection tool -- shows a 99 percent probability that it was generated with AI.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found a similar video of him published by Bangladeshi outlet Jamuna TV on December 17, 2025 (archived link).
The video is captioned: "Fizz reaction after being picked up by KKR for 90 million Indian rupees" ($982,000).
In the video, he can be heard saying: "Hi KKR fans, I am Mustafizur Rahman. I am very happy and delighted to be a part of the KKR team! See you soon."
He does not mention a call for boycotting the IPL.
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation around the unrest in Bangladesh.
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