Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become essential today than ever before.
Claim
National cricket team captain Rohit Poudel asserted that Sandeep Lamichhane will return to the field soon.
Fact
No, an old interview of Rohit is being passed off with a false narrative.
A video claiming that captain of Nepal’s national cricket team Rohit Poudel asserted that his predecessor Sandeep Lamichhane will return to the cricket field soon is going viral on Facebook.
Nepal spinner Sandeep Lamichhane was sentenced to eight years in jail by the Kathmandu District court on January 10 after he was convicted for raping an 18-year-old woman.
A Facebook page named Ktm Post posted a video carrying an interview of skipper Poudel praising the contribution made by Lamichhane in Nepal’s cricket. In the interview clip Poudel says, “He had contributed to the team as an all-rounder. He has made a huge contribution in all 12 games we won including World Cup Qualifier and Asia Cup. He is a match winner for our team. He is known for taking wickets in crucial moments. He is an important player of our team. I have faith in the law. I believe the truth will prevail. Let him get the justice at the earliest.” A voice-over accompanying the video says, “Here is good news about former captain of Nepali national team Sandeep Lamichhane. The incumbent captain Rohit Poudel made this revelation. Poudel has openly praised Sandeep Lamichhane. He made this revelation after playing a match today. He said no one could have stopped Nepal from performing well if Sandeep Lamichhane was in the team. He said Nepal aims to become the number one associate nation by the end of 2027 World Cup. In a press meet organised after a match today, Poudel said Nepal made it to World Cup Cricket League 2 with a goal of becoming a number one associate nation. Rohit said the game lacked enthusiasm due to the absence of Sandeep. Sandeep is a good player and he has been a victim of injustice. Everyone should lend support to provide him justice… In addition, Sandeep Lamichhane’s lawyer is preparing to lodge an appeal at Patan High Court against the Kathmandu District Court verdict. Likewise, the District Attorney’s Office is also preparing for an appeal on the case.”
The video caption reads, “Captain Rohit asserts Sandeep is coming back to the field soon, High Court decision, here is the good news.”
The video posted on February 17 has been viewed 251k times, 42k users have reacted and 497 people have commented until the time of writing this article.The archived version of the Facebook video can be seen here.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker analysed the video and took a few clues from it. We then searched for captain Rohit’s recent interview on YouTube and found a video dated, May 9, 2023, published on the YouTube Channel of News24 Television.
On checking the video titled ‘Nepali cricket is incomplete without Sandeep Lamichhane: Rohit Poudel’, we found that the video frame from the 18.33-minute timestamp exactly matched the clip used in the viral video. However, we found the video was old and not captured after Nepal’s recent match against Canada as claimed in the viral video. And Rohit didn’t say that his predecessor Lamichhane will join the national cricket team soon.
Further, we searched for the interview of Rohit after Nepal’s loss to Namibia in their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 (2024-2027) campaign at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on February 15 and found a post-match interview, dated February 15, 2024, published on the YouTube channel named Wicket Nepal. On listening to the interview with national team coach Monty Desai and Captain Rohit Poudel, we didn’t find Rohit mentioning anything about the absence of Sandeep Lamichhane in the match.
Nepal suffered a four-wicket loss against Namibia in their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 (2024-2027) campaign at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Kathmandu on Thursday (February 15). Nepal had also defeated the Netherlands by nine wickets in their second match of the Nepal tri-series of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 (2024-2027) on Saturday (February 17).
We also searched for reports regarding Rohit’s statement on Sandeep. However, we didn’t find anything matching the claim made in the viral video.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that the video is passing off a false narrative by using an old interview clip of Rohit Poudel.
Conclusion
No, Nepali national cricket team captain Rohit Poudel didn’t say Lamichhane will come back to join the team soon. An old clip of Rohit’s interview is being passed off claiming that Rohit said Sandeep Lamichhane is coming back soon after getting a clean-chit from the High Court.
Result: False
Sources
News24/YouTube, May 9, 2023
WicketNepal/YouTube, Feb 15, 2024
BBC Sports , Jan 10, 2024
Kathmandu Post, Feb 17, 2024
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become essential today than ever before.
