Fact Check: No, Ricky Pointing did not call India and BCCI ‘mafia of cricket’

Hyderabad: After India’s defeat in the ICC World Cup final against Australia, a statement attributed to the former Aussie skipper Ricky Pointing taking a dig at India is going viral on social.

Many claimed that Pointing, during an appearance on Fox Sports Channel, has allegedly called the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) the ‘cricket mafia’ and said India could not win the ICC trophy despite substantial financial and influential resources.

“This is a win of justice against cricket mafia. Your money and power is still not winning World Cups for you. How embarrassing (sic),” reads the alleged statement, shared by an X user.

Posts making the same claim can be viewed here, here, here, here and here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter verified that Ricky Pointing did not make any such statement on Fox Sports Channel.

We ran a relevant keyword search but did not find any credible media outlet reporting the alleged statement of Pointing. A former Australian skipper calling BCCI ‘cricket mafia’ would have made headlines.

Further, we found a report by Fox Cricket from November 20, titled ‘Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain call out India for tactical pitch ‘backfire’.’

As per the report, the Aussie cricket icon said the pitch prepared ‘backfired on India’. However, it did not feature the alleged statement of Ponting calling out BCCI as the ‘cricket mafia’ or taking a dig that India could not win the ICC trophy despite substantial financial and influential resources.

We also scrolled through the official X account of Fox Cricket but did not find any video clip or news posted by the handle of Pointing making the alleged statement.

Since there is no report or evidence on the Internet of Pointing making the alleged statement, we conclude that the statement attributed to the Aussie skipper is false.