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| - Fact Check: No, Travis Head DID NOT dedicate Australia's WC23 victory to Palestine
India Today found that the X post circulated in the name of Head was made from a parody account of the Australian player. The same account earlier impersonated Virat Kohli.
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India Today Fact Check
This post was made from a parody account of the Australian player. There are no reports about Head dedicating the victory to Palestinians.
Following Australia's smashing World Cup victory, many on social media are claiming that star cricketer Travis Head dedicated the championship trophy to Palestinians. According to some of these posts, Head also expressed gratitude to Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who gifted him the bat that contributed to his tournament-winning performance.
Many of these posts contained the screenshot of an X post purportedly made by Head. The post read: “I dedicate this victory to the innocent people of Palestine. May peace prevail all over the world. Special thanks to @babarazam258 for the bat, always proved lucky for me.”
India Today found that the X post circulated in the name of Head was made by a parody account of the Australian player. There are no reports about Head dedicating Australia’s victory to Palestinians.
Our Probe
Had the Australian cricketer dedicated the World Cup trophy to Palestinians, it would have made headlines internationally. However, our search did not yield any credible reports supporting such a claim. Additionally, Instagram is the only social media platform where Travis Head has a verified account, and we found no posts related to dedicating the victory to Palestine there. Even an Instagram story by Head in solidarity with Palestine would likely have garnered media attention.
Story behind viral screenshot
In the viral screenshot, the X username visible on the image was “@TravisHead_07”. A search for this username on X led us to an account seemingly belonging to Travis Head. The bio of this account created in August 2023, however, states: “A proud husband and father. Parody Account.”
The now-viral screenshot is from a post made by this account on November 19, 2023. It's worth mentioning that this account has also made several pro-Palestine posts.
Head parody used to be Kohli parody
Further investigation revealed that this account previously used the handle “@amiVkohli” and parodied India’s Virat Kohli. It used both Kohli’s name and photo in the account. How did we find out?
We observed multiple tweets from this account in October made in the name of Kohli. One of these was an edited photo of Kohli and Anushka Sharma with the flag of Palestine. The post read, “Me and Anushka Sharma Support Palestine. Do you? Retweet this if you also support Palestine.”
However, the original photo actually featured the Indian national flag and was originally shared by Sharma on Instagram as part of the “Har Ghar Tiranga” campaign on Independence Day 2022.
We also observed individuals responding to some of these posts and tagging the account “@amiVkohli”. When we searched for responses to this account on X, we found all posts leading to the Travis Head parody account. We also found that “@amiVkohli” does not exist on X anymore.
On the Wayback Machine, we also found a bunch of posts made by “@amiVkohli” in October, all of which can also be found on the Travis Head parody account.
Babar Azam’s bat
According to a Hindustan Times report from June 2023, Babar Azam gifted Head with a bat during the Australian tour of Pakistan and the UAE in 2022. The report added that Babar and Head share the same bat manufacturer. However, we found no reports regarding the claim that Head used this very bat in the World Cup.
Thus, it’s clear that a parody account’s post went viral as Travis Head’s statement.
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