Fact Check: 2007 World Cup winning team met both PM and Sonia Gandhi; viral claim is misleading

Hyderabad: India clinched their second T20 World Cup title under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, defeating South Africa in a thrilling seven-run victory in the final match held in Barbados on June 30.

Amid this celebration, an image of Congress leader and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi with the 2007 T20 World Cup-winning team led by MS Dhoni is circulating on social media. The photo also features Congress leader and vice president of BCCI, Rajiv Shukla. The accompanying claim suggests that the winning team was photographed with Sonia Gandhi instead of then-prime minister Manmohan Singh.

An X user shared the image and wrote, “Indian cricket team won the World Cup in 2007. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain and Rajiv Shukla was the acting president of BCCI, instead of Manmohan Singh who was the Prime Minister of the country, the photo shoot was done with ‘super PM’ Sonia Gandhi. No journalist questioned the capacity Sonia Gandhi had for getting a photoshoot done with the Indian cricket team. Think about how much dictatorship the vile Congress has shown in India and how much it has shamed the dignity of the post of Prime Minister. (translated from Hindi)” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading.

Along with Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, his wife Gursharan Kaur, and other Congress leaders were also photographed with the 2007 T20 World Cup-winning team.

We conducted specific keyword searches and found six photos of Singh meeting and posing with the victorious team, published by The Times of India on October 31, 2027. One of these photos depicts Singh, his wife Gursharan Kaur, and other dignitaries posing for a group photograph with the winning team.

The photo caption reads, “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his wife Gursharan Kaur, and other dignitaries pose for a group photograph with T20 World Cup winners.”

We also found three photos published in the PMO archive on October 30, 2007. The first photo shows Singh and his wife posing with the winning team, the second captures Singh with his wife and then-sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar posing with winning captain MS Dhoni, and the third depicts Singh shaking hands with the explosive left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh.

Therefore, we conclude that the claim suggesting only Sonia Gandhi was photographed with the 2007 T20 World Cup winning team and not the then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is misleading.