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| - Fact check: Don't be rattled. This snake was not a viewer at the ENG-AFG Champions Trophy match
This video is from a 2023 match in Sri Lanka. Not Pakistan.
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After a feline guest, did a snake crash the Champions Trophy 2025 match in Pakistan? After Afghanistan eliminated England from the semi-final race on February 26 in Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, a video of a snake wriggling through electric wires at the boundary of a stadium went viral on social media. Allegedly, this was during the Afghanistan-England match.
Many in the comments criticised and laughed at Pakistan’s Champions Trophy arrangements because of this alleged incident.
India Today Fact Check found that this is a 2023 video from a match in Sri Lanka.
Our Probe
The scorecard at the bottom of the screen in the viral video noted ENG vs AFG, 31-2 in 7.2 overs.
Reverse searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a YouTube video shared by the official YouTube channel of Sri Lanka Cricket on August 12, 2023. In this extended version, the snake can be seen roaming around the stadium boundary as the match continues. The video description stated that it is from the Lanka Premier League 2023.
Unlike the viral clip, the scorecard at the bottom of the YouTube video read Jaffna vs Kandy, 140-5 in 17.1 overs. Also, the players are in blue and red jerseys in this match, while the jerseys of both England and Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy are blue. This means that this clip was edited to change the scoreboard and players in the stadium.
We then found multiple news reports about this incident from Sri Lanka. According to them, a snake appeared at the boundary of the stadium during a match on August 12, 2023, during the Lanka Premier League. The snake reportedly appeared twice during the game between Jaffna Kings and B-Love Kandy.
At one point, the snake was spotted crawling near Kandy pacer Isuru Udana in the stadium itself. The other time, a snake was seen crawling on the boundary line near electric wires, scaring the cameramen there. The incident reportedly took place in the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Per reports, it wasn’t the first time that a snake appeared in an LPL match. Earlier, on July 31, 2023, a snake was spotted in the stadium during another LPL match, bringing the game to a halt.
According to the highlights of the ENG vs AFG Champions Trophy match, during the 7th over of the match, Afghan cricketer Rahmat Shah was batting with Ibrahim Zadran while England’s Mark Wood was balling. The scorecard superimposed in the viral clip has been taken from the second bowl of that over.
It is, thus, clear that an old video from a match played in Sri Lanka was edited to share as from Pakistan’s Champions Trophy match.
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