Saeed Ajmal said Shahid Afridi has always played ‘dirty politics’ in cricket

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated the claim by checking whether former Pakistani cricketer Saeed Ajmal had made any such statement on any platform.

Multiple posts circulating on social media since June 19, 2024, claimed that Ajmal pointed fingers at former cricketer Shahid Khan Afridi and alleged that the latter always did “dirty politics” in cricket. However, Ajmal denied having ever uttered such comments.

Afridi has been under criticism recently on social media by PTI supporters, during which further fuel was added to the controversy with the resurfacing of an old clip of former captain Younis Khan talking against Afridi and separately, him getting involved in a situation about whether he posed for photographs with Israeli supporters or not.

HOW IT STARTED

On June 19, 2024, an X user, who appeared to be a PTI supporter based on his past posts, shared the picture of an ABC News Urdu social media quote share post in which Ajmal was targeting Afridi.

The caption of the post said, “Shahid Afridi has always had a despicable character: Saeed Ajmal.”

The caption of the shared post by ABC News Urdu said, “Shahid Afridi has always done dirty politics in cricket as well: Saeed Ajmal.”

It gained over 113,000 views.

The alleged quote was widely shared by others as well, either with or without the ABC News Urdu quote share as seen here by a PTI supporter with over 5,000 views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the matter since it came amid Afridi being embroiled in controversy for his photo with Israeli supporters and Younis Khan’s remarks against him from an old interview.

To verify the claim, the social media accounts of ABC News Urdu and Ajmal were investigated, leading to an X post by the latter dated June 19, in which he clearly denied the claim.

Sharing a photo of the quote share, Ajmal wrote, “This is a fake statement. Please verify the news before posting false information and spreading hate. I urge ABC News Urdu to take down this post and admit its inauthenticity, or I will take action!”

The post by ABC News Urdu dated back to March 23, 2024. Notably, the post offered no link to a corresponding news report detailing where and when Ajmal made the alleged comment.

A keyword search for “Saeed Ajmal” and the outlet for any news story also yielded no results to substantiate the quote share.

Furthermore, news reports from March 22 showed that Afridi was also embroiled in a different controversy back then and under criticism for remarks regarding the country’s political scenario, government and institutions.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding Ajmal alleging that Afridi dabbled in “dirty politics” in cricket is false.

Addressing the matter himself, Ajmal denied making any such claim.

Evidence and References

June 19, 2024, Saeed Ajmal X post:
https://perma.cc/S3NX-8DQE