Fact Check: Claim of Arjun Tendulkar being selected due to nepotism or being a Brahmin is false
Viral posts claiming Sachin’s son Arjun Tendulkar was selected due to nepotism are false.
Ankita Deshkar
The Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders match on Sunday (April 16) in IPL 2023 was special for the Tendulkar family as it marked the IPL debut of Sachin’s son Arjun. Meanwhile, there is a debate on nepotism on social media. An old claim is now going viral again, stating that Arjun Tendulkar was selected by ignoring Pranav Dhanwade, who was more qualified. This claim was being shared on social media after Arjun’s selection in the U-16 team.
What’s going viral?
We found such posts on Facebook and Twitter:
What did you find on Facebook?
investigation:
We started our investigation with a Google keyword search to check all the news related to the selection of Pranav Dhanwade and Arjun Tendulkar. The Indian Express carried a report about Pranav titled, “Untold story of Pranav Dhanawade’s 1000 runs record: 25 chances, 10-year-old ‘pacers’, 30-yard boundaries”, published on 31 May 2016 was done
According to the news, “But his bowling figures will be discussed as much as Dhanwade’s 1009 off 323 balls, which took the cricketing imagination to new horizons. However, factors such as the lack of competition, a total of 25 chances – 22 catches and three missing stumpings – cannot be ignored in the innings of the 15-year-old cricketer.
Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni also congratulated Pranav for his innings of 1009 runs in the year 2016.
const contact_forms = document.getElementsByClassName(‘contact-form’);
for ( const form of contact_forms ) {
form.onsubmit = function() {
const buttons = form.getElementsByTagName(‘button’);
for( const button of buttons ) {
button.setAttribute(‘disabled’, true);
}
}
}
} )();
document.getElementById( “ak_js_1” ).setAttribute( “value”, ( new Date() ).getTime() );
According to the report: Mumbai’s Under-16 team was selected before this record of Pranav. He also played a few matches. Since Pranav was not in the Mumbai U-16 team, he cannot be a part of the West Zone team, which is in process. This was told by Pranav’s father Prashant Dhanavade to Firstpost.
We also found a report in Times of India titled ‘Pranav Dhanawade to pursue English dreams’ which was published on April 9, 2022.
In this report, Pranav had mentioned that he has got a contract to play from Northwich Cricket Club in Cheshire near Manchester.
We found a video on the Facebook page of Loksatta, which was of Pranav’s interview. In this interview, Pranav himself has rejected the viral claim and called it wrong. Pranav said, “The viral post is fake. There is no comparison between me and Arjun. Arjun was selected in the West Zone team. He first played under-16 for Mumbai and on the basis of that he was selected for the West Zone team. Till then I had not played under-16. I was not sitting in the Criteria. People only need a reason to spread rumours, nothing else. I had clarified the same on social media even then. Arjun is really a good friend of mine.”
You can see this interview published on January 8, 2022 on Loksatta’s Facebook page.
For more information on this issue, we spoke to Vijay Lokpalli, a well-known sports journalist and author. He has written five books related to cricket in India. He said, “This is an absolutely ridiculous claim. His innings came against a group of school children. Pranav was awarded a good scholarship by the Mumbai Cricket Association. It is unfair to target the son of a celebrity. There is no comparison between Arjun and Pranav and in my 40 years of cricket journalism, I have not come across a single case of discrimination on the basis of caste.”
conclusion: Viral post claiming Sachin’s son Arjun Tendulkar was selected due to nepotism is false,
https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.2
