Speculation on social media has bubbled over into reports in some outlets that all is not well in the Pakistan dressing room, with rumours that skipper Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi were involved in a physical fight during the first Test against Bangladesh also spreading. But there is little concrete basis of a rift between the two.
What are the various rumours?
Pakistan lost the first Test against Bangladesh last week - the first time they have been defeated by the Tigers in the format. As Pakistan extended their winless streak at home to nine matches, various rumours about reported rifts in the camp went viral. A clip of an animated Masood talking in frustration with the head coach Jason Gillespie started doing the rounds.
Stories in some outlets, including Republic World, a prominent right-wing news outlet, also suggested that there was a physical rift between the captain and Shaheen, who has not been picked for the second Test. There is no factual basis for this claim, which appears to have been started by a parody account of Mufaddal Vohra, a cricket news aggregator on the X social media platform.
Shaheen Afridi and Shan Masood had a physical fight in dressing room. Rizwan tried to sort it out and they started beating him too.
— mufaddla parody (@mufaddl_parody) August 29, 2024
-Black Day for Pakistan Cricket pic.twitter.com/47EZhMmDL8
Republic World have form for publishing fake news, with previous debunked stories including coverage of a coup in China based on a sarcastic thread of tweets, and reports of an explosion near the Pentagon, propagated by social media accounts posing as reputable news outlets.
What about the “shoulder” incident between Masood and Shaheen?
Another video that is being circulated to suggest a potential rift in the team is that of Shaheen removing his skipper’s hand from his shoulder in the team huddle before the start of Bangladesh’s first innings.
Wisden.com, however, understands that this is also overblown. Shaheen had been hit on the shoulder while batting shortly before Pakistan's declaration, and he removed Masood's hand seemingly due to discomfort. Longer footage of the huddle, shown on TV, shows the pair with arms around each other's backs as Masood delivered his final messages.
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