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| - Fact Check: This picturesque cricket stadium is NOT in Pakistan, it's just concept art
A photo of a cricket stadium has gone viral on social media, with the claim that it is in Balochistan, Pakistan. India Today's AFWA found that this is not a real stadium.
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India Today Fact Check
Although there is a cricket stadium in this exact spot in Gwadar, Pakistan, the stadium in the viral photo was concept art designed by a Mumbai architecture firm.
A photo of a cricket stadium surrounded by towering cliffs has been making the rounds on social media lately. Those sharing it claimed that this stadium was in Balochistan, Pakistan.
One such tweet read, "The most attractive cricket stadium of Balochistan, Pakistan one should visit and see the natural beauty of Gawader." Gawader or Gwadar is a port city located on the southwestern coast of Balochistan. The archived version of such a post can be seen here.
Another person shared the photo and wrote: “The Gwadar #cricket stadium in Balochistan, Pakistan, has one of the most stunning backdrops in the world. Why not #PSL2023 matches here at #Gwadar.” The PSL or the Pakistan Super League is a professional Twenty20 cricket league.
AFWA found that this is not a real stadium. It’s concept art designed by a Mumbai-based architecture firm. While there is a cricket stadium in Gwadar, it does not look anything like the viral photo.
AFWA Probe
We ran the photo through Google Lens, which led us to a website for “Modern Green Structures and Architecture.” Titled: “Prem Nath - Prem Nath & Associates,” one of the pages on this website featured the same stadium. However, we noticed that in this photo, the stadium was not surrounded by cliffs.
The photo of the stadium was accompanied by text that detailed the aim and ambition to build a sports stadium that meets “international standards and grandeur in scale, size and facilities.”
Subsequently, we searched for “Prem Nath & Associates”. According to its website, it is a “Bombay-based complete design organisation established in 1967 having professional practice in architecture and interior designing and offering engineering services all over India for 50+ years.”
We also found the same design on the firm’s website. The original model depicted a modern-looking cricket stadium with helipads and gardens besides.
AFWA reached out to Prem Nath & Associates, who informed us via email that "this image of a stadium was designed by Ar. Prem Nath. The email added that the firm hadn’t worked on any project in Pakistan and that this photo was “illegally shared” by certain Twitter users. This proved that the photo did not show the Gwadar cricket stadium.
We then looked for photos of the stadium in question and came across a Facebook post shared by the International Cricket Council on January 31, 2021.
We also found photos of the stadium in the Pakistani daily, Dawn. And judging by the photos, the location of the stadium is exactly where the viral photo depicts it. However, the stadium itself looked nothing like the one in the viral photo. We searched for news reports to check if any renovation work in this stadium was underway. We found none.
Thus, it is clear that concept art for a cricket stadium was falsely shared as a real cricket stadium from Pakistan's Balochistan.
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You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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