It not a new thing that news of famous celebrities meeting their demise spreads like wildfire before it turns out to be fake.
Adding to the list is now former Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya who was speculated to be dead. But those reports were all rumours as no news organization or an official had given any information regarding the same.
This month a piece of fake news was shared over the internet about Sanath’s death in a car accident in Canada. The news also took Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin by surprise as he asked the truth behind the speculations to his 9.45 million followers on Twitter.
“Is the news on Sanath Jayasuriya true?? I got a news update on what’s app but see nothing here on Twitter,” enquired Ashwin on Twitter.
Several fans on Twitter then tweeted back to Ashwin that the news regarding Jayasuriya’s death were fake. A Twitter user said, “It’s false, Sanath himself has denied it.”
Sanath had himself denied the news about his car accident on his Twitter account. On May 21, Sanath had said, “Please disregard fake news by malicious websites regarding my health and well being. I am in Srilanka and have not visited Canada recently. Please avoid sharing fake news.”
Jayasuriya is one of the best batsmen in the history of limited-overs cricket. He is the only player to score over 12,000 runs and capture more than 300 wickets in One Day Internationals. He was given the award for the Most Valuable Player of 1996 World Cup when Sri Lanka won the tournament. He retired from Test cricket in December 2007 and from limited overs cricket in June 2011.
Earlier this year, Jayasuriya was banned for two years from all cricket-related activity by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit. The former Sri Lanka captain was punished for refusing to co-operate with investigations concerning corruption in the country.