Modi at cricket World Cup Final presentation ceremony: Clipped video viral with misleading claims

Several short clips of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the post-match presentation ceremony of the ICC men’s cricket World Cup Final 2023 in Ahmedabad are viral on social media. In these videos, the PM can be seen handing over the World Cup to the Australian captain Pat Cummins along with Australian deputy PM Richard Marles. After awarding the trophy, PM Modi and the Aussie deputy PM walk off the stage leaving the Australian skipper alone on the stage.

Users have shared the clips claiming or indirectly suggesting that the actions of the PM were disgraceful or disrespectful and they reflected badly on India as a host country. Some stated that Cummins wanted to speak to the Indian PM but the latter did not reciprocate. One user called the PM’s behaviour atrocious.

Journalist and X (formerly Twitter) Blue user Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat) shared a four-second clip on November 19 and mentioned in the caption: “India proved itself to be the most disgraceful host!” The tweet has received over 7.5 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 1,700 times. (Archive)

X Blue user Venisha G Kiba (@KibaVenisha) also shared the viral clip with a caption that said: “Look at the behavior of #Panauti Modi displayed toward the Australian guest.” The tweet had received over 2.10 Lakh views and had been retweeted over 1,300 times before X suspended the user’s account for violating the platform rules. (Archive)

Author Chris Deeley (@ThatChris1209) also shared the viral clip the same day amplifying it further. The tweet has received over 2 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 200 times. (Archive)

Several other users such as @daisycutterzine, @RavinderKapur2, @narayani_basu, @poetvardhan, @CricketwithAnas, @kanwalrazi20 shared the clip disapproving of the PM’s behaviour.

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Fact Check

On running a keyword search we found the replay of the entire match on the platform that telecast the Final. The video is 11 hours and 21 minutes long. At the 10:14:28 mark of the replay, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian deputy PM Richard Marles are called upon by Ravi Shastri, the presenter of the award ceremony, on to the stage to hand over the World Cup to Pat Cummins. Shastri then requests Cummins to receive the trophy from the two dignitaries.

At the 10:15:32 mark, PM Modi can be seen shaking hands and exchanging a few words with the Australian skipper and at the 10:15:41 mark, the two statesmen hand over the trophy to Cummins even as fireworks go off in the background. Following this, all three pose for photographs. Then, both PM Modi and deputy PM Marles shake hands with Cummins again before disembarking the dais.

The cameras remain on Cummins for some time and he can be seen looking in the direction in which the PM walked off. At the 10:16:33 mark, the camera shows PM Modi and Aussie deputy PM Marles shaking hands with the rest of the Australian team who later rush to join their caption on the dais.

Below is a longer version of the viral clip where it can be clearly seen that PM Modi greeted Pat Cummins and interacted with him before moving on to greet the rest of the team. (Source: Disney+ Hotstar)

From our above findings, two things can be clearly concluded. A. The viral videos are clipped. They do not show the entire duration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Australian captain Pat Cummins. B. The claim that the PM did not reciprocate when Cummins wanted to speak to him is baseless and false.

Now, whether the PM’s behaviour was ‘disgraceful’ or ‘disrespectful’ or ‘atrocious’ is subject to interpretation and beyond the scope of fact-checking. Writing for The Wire, Tunku Varadarajan noted that it was “…the most graceless presentation of a cup to a winning captain, in which Modi – sulking like a spoiled child who hasn’t had the celebration he’d thought was his birthright – handed over the trophy to Pat Cummins and then turned his back on the Australian captain.” What we can confirm is that the PM did spend over a minute on the dais with Cummins and Marles, and greeted the Australian captain. What conversation the three had is not verifiable, but PM Modi can be clearly seen exchanging smiles, a few words and shaking hands with the World Cup winning skipper before posing with him for photos. The viral videos do not show any of this and are, hence, misleading.

It is pertinent to add that several news reports (for example Stuff, The Guardian, news.com.au, Independent) have pointed out that the presentation ceremony was rather ill-planned and ‘awkward’ for the Australian skipper who was standing by himself with the Cup for a few minutes until his team joined him at the podium. Generally, the trophy is handed over to the winning team’s captain while the entire team is present with him/her at the podium.

Below, we have complied the trophy handing over ceremony from the ICC cricket World Cup 2011, 2015 and 2019, and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. As readers can see, on all these occasions, the winning captain was flanked by the entire team when they received the trophy.

 

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