Created By: Boom
Co-Published By: LokmatTimes.com
A series of old videos showing people celebrating in the streets and in front of their televisions is being falsely circulated on social media as footage of Afghan fans celebrating India's victory over New Zealand in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy final. BOOM, a fact-checking organization, analyzed the videos and found that they actually predate the Champions Trophy final, which took place on March 9, 2025, where India defeated New Zealand by four wickets.
One of the videos was shared by the X handle @jpsin1, with a Hindi caption translating to English as: "India's victory was celebrated with great pomp in Afghanistan's capital Kabul. Afghans celebrated India's victory in a grand manner. All the footage is being shown in Pakistani media, and people are feeling proud that despite being a Kafir country, India has made Muslim Afghans its friends." However, this claim is misleading.
Another video showing Afghan fans celebrating has also been shared on YouTube and X with the same false narrative. BOOM found that this video, along with others, predates India's win in the Champions Trophy final. On February 27, 2025, cricket influencer @CricCrazyJohns posted one of the viral videos, captioning it: "Afghanistan fans celebrating their victory in Champions Trophy."
In one video, the TV screen displays the final scoreboard, revealing that Afghanistan had just beaten England, which occurred during the group stage of the 2025 Champions Trophy. The viral videos were originally posted by an Instagram user with the handle @zekria.zeer, who is a video creator from Afghanistan. Both videos were uploaded by @zekria.zeer on February 27, 2025, showing celebrations in Afghanistan after the team’s victory over England on February 26, 2025. This match was a major upset as England was eliminated from the tournament.
Therefore, the viral footage, which is being shared as evidence of Afghan celebrations following India's victory, is unrelated to the actual events of the Champions Trophy final and instead relates to Afghanistan's win over England in the tournament's group stage.
This story was originally published by Boom and republished by LokmatTimes.com as part of the Shakti Collective.