A widely circulated photo on social media shows Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell touching the feet of Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. This post alleges that this occurred after Maxwell’s remarkable double century against Afghanistan in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 cricket match on 7 November 2023. In this article, we fact-check this claim.
Claim: A photo depicting Glenn Maxwell touching Sachin Tendulkar’s feet after his double century against Afghanistan.
Fact: The photo in question is edited, and the original image shows Tendulkar shaking hands with an Afghan cricketer. Therefore, the claim made in the post is False.
We conducted an internet search using relevant keywords to ascertain the viral photo’s authenticity. This search led us to a set of posts (here and here) by the International Cricket Council (ICC) that included a video of Sachin Tendulkar meeting with Afghan cricket players, where he is seen in a similar shirt as in the viral photo. But in regard to the viral claim, we found no photographic or news evidence of Tendulkar meeting with Glenn Maxwell on the cricket field following his double century.
Further investigation revealed a tweet by Tendulkar lauding Maxwell’s performance as the “best ODI knock” he had ever seen but there is mention or evidence of the alleged meeting.
A subsequent search for more images of Tendulkar’s meeting with the Afghan cricket team led us to the original image that was manipulated to create the viral photo.
In the original photo, Tendulkar is seen shaking hands with an Afghan player, and Maxwell is nowhere in the picture.
To sum up, the viral image claiming to show Glenn Maxwell touching Sachin Tendulkar’s feet is an edited version of an original image showing Tendulkar shaking hands with an Afghan cricketer.
