Several social media accounts are sharing a video of former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar falsely claiming that former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram died of a heart attack.
The claim is false. Akhtar did not make any such statement and Wasim Akram has rubbished the news of his death.
Assertion
On July 4, a TikTok user posted a video in which former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar appears to say, “I am sorry to inform you that famous cricketer Wasim Akram has died of a heart attack.”
At the time of writing, the video had received more than 532,000 views and over 30,000 likes.
Fact
The video is an AI-generated deepfake. Shoaib Akhtar has not made any such statement and the claim that Wasim Akram is dead is false.
The footage of Akhtar used in the viral clip has been online since March 2025, where he commented on the absence of a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) representative during the presentation ceremony of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
The original footage was manipulated using artificial intelligence and edited to falsely portray Akhtar as announcing the death of Wasim Akram. In the original video, Akhtar does not mention Akram.
The original video can be seen here.
Separately, on July 6, Wasim Akram posted a video on his Instagram account refuting AI-generated videos that falsely claimed he was dead.
In addition, 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 claim is false. Akhtar never made the statement and Wasim Akram is alive.
