The 1983 cricket World Cup-winning captain, Kapil Dev, has become the latest victim of a death hoax. The rumour about his death came shortly after the 61-year-old underwent a successful emergency coronary angioplasty on 23 October 2020, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
However, the rumours were quashed by Dev himself when he released a video of himself thanking his well-wishers and appeared in a televised cricket analysis show.
CLAIM
Social media users posted Dev's photo along with captions that claimed that the cricketing giant had passed away.
One of the captions read, “भारत का पूरे विश्व में नाम चमकाने वाले और हरियाणा की आन बान व शान पुर्व क्रिकेटर श्री कपिल देव जी के ह्रदयघात से निधन होने पर भावभीनी श्रद्धांजलि |” [Translation: Tribute to ex-cricketer Shri Kapil Dev Ji - Haryana's pride, the man who made India proud around the world - who died because of a heart attack.]
The rumour was spread by many on Twitter as well.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
After the rumours of Dev’s death went viral, his teammate and former Indian cricketer Madan Lal took to Twitter to dismiss the claims.
Kapil Dev himself posted a video on an exclusive WhatsApp group of the members of the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian team on 29 October. He thanked his “family of 83” and said that he was feeling good and hoped to meet everyone soon. The 29-second video was shared by others on Twitter.
More recently, Dev appeared on a show on 2 November 2020 on ABP News. Dev discussed the former Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s form in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) and gave some advice to the current Indian captain Virat Kohli.
Evidently, the rumours about former India cricket captain Kapil Dev are not true. He is recovering after undergoing a successful coronary angioplasty.
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