New Delhi: A viral image of Australian cricketer Ellyse Perry proposing to Pakistani batter Babar Azam sent not just Pakistanis in a tizzy, but also cricket fans across the globe, until Grok came to the rescue to declare that it was fake.
A former soccer player, Perry debuted for both the national cricket and national soccer team at the age of 16. She is the youngest Australian to play international cricket and the first to appear in both ICC and FIFA World Cups.
In the AI-generated image, Perry can be seen down on one knee with a ring while Azam stands with his hand extended in a cricket ground. Both are seen wearing jerseys of BBL, or Big Bash League, an Australian T20 cricket league.
Azam is currently in Australia, playing in the league, but Perry is not. She is in New Zealand, playing for their cricket league, Super Smash.
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Not the first time
Before the fact-check, even Pakistanis got swayed. They were busy pointing out how wrong this is on religious lines.
“Islamic republic of Pakistan btw,” Haris Ahmed wrote on X.
Others were busy congratulating Babar. Even Indians joined in the fun.
“AI needs to be made out of reach for a lot many consumers,” a comment read on X.
Another said, “Cricinfo Bhai naraz mat hona grok ne clear kar diya fake h”.
Some cricket fans had different queries. If the opposite happened, would Perry even marry him?
One X user asked Grok, “Suppose babar azam proposed to ellyse perry. would she accept???”
Babar Azam‘s critics were angry at the image. “That’s why I say learn some good editing. Btw Ellyse Perry is 10X better a player than Babar Azam. She hasn’t fallen on such hard times that she would have to do all this,” a person, Wasim, wrote on X.
This is not the first time Babar has faced this. He has earlier been linked to Pakistani actress Hania Aamir. And in September last year, another Pakistani actress, Nazish Jahangir, was caught in the crosshairs of Azam’s fans after she said that if she were to ever hypothetically receive a marriage proposal from him, she would respectfully refuse.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)