Several social media accounts are sharing a video featuring former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, falsely claiming that former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram died of a heart attack.
The statement is false. Akhtar made no such statement and Wasim Akram denied the news of his death.
Claim
On July 4, a TikTok user posted a video in which former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar appeared to say, “I regret to inform you that famous cricketer Wasim Akram has passed away due to a heart attack. »
At the time of writing, the video has garnered over 532,000 views and over 30,000 likes.
Do
The video is an AI-generated deepfake. Shoaib Akhtar has not made any such statement and the claim that Wasim Akram has died is false.
The footage of Akhtar used in the viral clip has been online since March 2025, when he commented on the absence of a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) representative during the presentation ceremony of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
These original images were manipulated using AI and edited to falsely portray Akhtar as announcing the death of Wasim Akram. In the original video, Akhtar makes no mention of Akram.
The original video can be viewed here.
Separately, on July 6, Wasim Akram posted a video on his Instagram account rejecting AI-generated videos falsely claiming that he was dead.
Additionally, the audio from the viral clip was analyzed using Hiya, a deepfake voice detection tool. It received an authenticity score of 23 out of 100, indicating that the audio is most likely AI-generated.
Verdict: The viral video is an AI-generated deepfake that falsely depicts Shoaib Akhtar announcing the death of Wasim Akram. The statement is false. Akhtar never made this statement and Wasim Akram is alive.
