Fact Check: Post Claiming Dhoni Has Adopted Buddhism is fake, Photo of Ad Campaign Going Viral With Fake Claim

Vishvas News (New Delhi): A photo of former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is going viral on social media. Social media users are sharing the picture claiming that Dhoni is converted to Buddhism. In the picture, Dhoni can be seen in the attire of a monk.

Vishvas News investigated and found the post to be fake. Star Sports has shared this picture of Dhoni promoting the ad campaign for the Indian Premier League (IPL). Social media users are sharing the same picture with false claims.

Claim

Vishvas News also got this claim for fact check on its WhatsApp chatbot (+91 9599299372). The post is also being widely shared on Facebook. A Facebook user named Narendra Paswan shared this picture, writing, “#Breaking_News World Cup winner, former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni ji took Buddha Dhamma deeksha and adopted Buddhism, Budham Sharanam Gachchami !! Congratulations to dear captain sir and wish you well!”

The archived version of this post can be viewed by clicking here.

Investigation

Vishvas News investigated the claim being made about Mahendra Singh Dhoni using google search by putting appropriate keywords. Dhoni is a public figure and usually, media houses report every news related to him. We found lot many results regarding the viral picture of Dhoni on the internet. A report published on Dainik Jagran’s website on March 14, 2021, shows the same photo of Dhoni as in the viral picture. The report is titled, ‘MS Dhoni Became Mahatma, New Monk Look Viral on Internet Media.’ In this report, referring to the viral picture, it is written, ‘Everyone is guessing that this new form of MS Dhoni is for an ad shoot for 2021 IPL, as Star Sports has shared the picture.’ The report has also embedded Star Sports’ tweets, sharing the new look of Dhoni. This report can be viewed by clicking here. Star’s tweets can also be seen below.

Vishvas News investigated the claim being made about Mahendra Singh Dhoni using google search by putting appropriate keywords. Dhoni is a public figure and usually, media houses report every news related to him. We found lot many results regarding the viral picture of Dhoni on the internet. A report published on Dainik Jagran’s website on March 14, 2021, shows the same photo of Dhoni as in the viral picture. The report is titled, ‘MS Dhoni Became Mahatma, New Monk Look Viral on Internet Media.’ In this report, referring to the viral picture, it is written, ‘Everyone is guessing that this new form of MS Dhoni is for an ad shoot for 2021 IPL, as Star Sports has shared the picture.’ The report has also embedded Star Sports’ tweets, sharing the new look of Dhoni. This report can be viewed by clicking here. Star’s tweets can also be seen below.

https://twitter.com/StarSportsIndia/status/1370743957223698433
https://twitter.com/StarSportsIndia/status/1370962880158306304
Based on the clue obtained from this report, we searched more about Dhoni’s viral picture. We found a recent report on the sportskeeda website. As per the report, Star Sports has released the first commercial of IPL 2021, which shows Dhoni’s monk avatar. In this report, that tweet of Star Sports has also been embedded, in which the video ad of this commercial featuring Dhoni has been shared. In this ad, Dhoni can be seen promoting IPL 2021. This report can be viewed by clicking here. The new commercial of Star Sports can also be seen below in his tweet.

It was clear from Vishvas News’s investigation that social media users are making false claims by sharing the picture of Dhoni related to the promotion of IPL 2021. We also shared this viral picture of Dhoni with the sports in-charge Viplav Kumar of Jagran.com. He also denied the claim going viral with this picture, saying, Star Sports has released a new commercial advertisement for the promotion of IPL 2021. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Monk avatar remains the subject of discussion in this. Viplav told us that another commercial advertisement has been released about Dhoni in this series, in which he is seen talking about Virat Kohli in a different way.

Vishvas News scanned the profile of Facebook user Narendra Paswan, who shared this viral claim. We found that the user is based out of Patna.