Fact Check: ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ sung at Dubai stadium during Champions Trophy final? Here’s the truth
Short Description: A video claiming to show a packed stadium of cricket fans singing ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ with a light show during the India vs New Zealand ICC Champions Trophy final is going viral.
By M Ramesh Naik Published on 13 March 2025 7:26 PM IST
Claim: The video shows ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ played at the Dubai International Stadium during the ICC Champions Trophy final.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is old and shows the India vs South Africa match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
Hyderabad: India clinched the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 title by defeating New Zealand by four wickets on March 9. Videos of people celebrating India’s win have gone viral. One such video claims to show a packed Dubai International Stadium filled with fans singing ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ while waving their mobile flashlights during the final match.
An Instagram user shared the video with the caption, “This day, this moment was everything.” (Archive) The text overlay on the video reads, “Felt the entire India this day, March 9, 2025, Dubai.”
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is not from the ICC Champions Trophy final in Dubai but from the India vs South Africa match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
A close examination of the video reveals banners displaying ‘ICC CWC23’ on the stadium stands and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 logo on the big screen.
These elements confirmed that the video was recorded during the tournament in 2023 and not during the recent Champions Trophy final in Dubai.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led to images of Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Further, using keyword searches, we found a Hindustan Times Bangla article published on November 6, 2023, titled, ‘India-South Africa Match: With a phone torch in hand, Vande Mataram on his lips, India will play the South Africa match to the tune of A R Rahman.’
The article stated that during the India-South Africa match at Eden Gardens on November 5, 2023, the entire stadium sang Vande Mataram in unison, creating a special moment. The article also embedded a video similar to the one that is now being falsely shared as being from Dubai.
Therefore, the claim that the ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ song was played at the Dubai International Stadium during the ICC Champions Trophy final is false. The video is from the India vs South Africa match at Eden Gardens, where fans sang Vande Mataram in a remarkable moment of unity during the 2023 World Cup.
