Fabricated video of Indian opposition MP lauding Pakistan for cricket 'diplomacy' misleads online
- Published on February 26, 2026 at 07:08
- 3 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India
A blockbuster T20 match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in Sri Lanka nearly didn't happen due to a short-lived boycott, which was resolved after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke with Sri Lankan leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. But contrary to footage circulating on social media in Pakistan, a prominent Indian opposition MP did not praise Islamabad's "diplomacy" in handling the stalemate. The politician called the video "fake news", and an AI detection tool confirmed there was a "high" likelihood the audio was manipulated using AI.
"Shashi Tharoor makes a startling revelation," reads the caption of an X post shared on February 11, 2026. It goes on to quote him saying: "Pakistan has done the unthinkable... Pakistan deserves to be appreciated to for taking a bold stand & proving their position."
A 24-second video included in the post shows Tharoor speaking from a car in English to reporters.
"I think how Pakistan played is indeed brilliant. I don’t know what they would do on field but what they did diplomatically is absolute brilliance. Indian Cricket Board was completely pinned," he was shown as saying in the video.
Matches between India and Pakistan -- arch-rivals both on and off the cricket field -- are among the most lucrative in the sport, worth millions of dollars in broadcast, sponsor and advertising revenue.
The 20-team T20 World Cup -- co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka -- has been overshadowed by an acrimonious political build-up after Bangladesh, who refused to play in India citing security concerns, were replaced by Scotland.
As a protest, Pakistan refused to face co-hosts India in their Group A fixture (archived link).
But after Sharif spoke with the Sri Lankan president, Islamabad directed its cricket team to play India on February 15 in Colombo, ending a week-long standoff.
The clip of Tharoor speaking circulated on Facebook, Instagram and X in Pakistan days after Islamabad announced that the match was back on.
Comments on the posts suggest people believed it to be genuine, with one user saying that"even voices inside India are acknowledging Pakistan's strong & principled position".
Another wrote: "Pakistan stood firm and exposed India's weaknesses, showing who truly plays with integrity and boldness."
But Tharoor confirmed on February 12 on his official X account that he never said those words (archived link).
"Ai-generated 'fake news' -- and not even very good. Neither my language nor my voice," he said.
Indian news outlets NDTV and Times of India also reported on Tharoor slamming the AI-generated video (archived link here and here).
Originally in Hindi
Reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip found a longer video in an X post shared by Indian news agency ANI on February 10 (archived link).
Speaking to reporters in Hindi, Tharoor says: "I am a politician, but I don't like politics in cricket and sports. I think sports is a different field, a different game."
"Let politicians do their politics somewhere else, diplomats do their work in diplomacy, and cricket players play their game. I'm happy that at least cricket will move with this match. Who will win and who will lose, that's another thing."
News website India Today's YouTube channel shared the same clip with Tharoor's Hindi quotes on February 10 (archived link).
AFP also extracted the audio from the falsely shared video and analysed it on the verification plugin InVID-WeVerify, which indicated an 87 percent likelihood it was generated using AI.
AFP has previously debunked claims where the audio of footage was fabricated using AI tools.
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