Mitchell Marsh's image edited to claim he rested his legs on a stool, not World Cup trophy

What is the claim?

Australia defeated India in the recently concluded 2023 ICC Men’s World Cup, and shortly after, a picture of cricketer Mitchell Marsh surfaced on social media showing him resting his feet on the World Cup trophy. The image triggered a lot of debate online, claiming that Marsh had ‘disrespected’ the trophy. 

However, days later, a post shared by a Facebook user in Telugu claimed that the photo with the trophy was morphed, and the original photo showed him resting his feet on a stool. This post included two images; one shows the Australian cricketer resting his feet on a stool, and the other shows them on the trophy. Several other posts made the same claim, and archived versions of such posts can be viewed here and here.

Screenshot of the claims circulating on social media. (Source: X/Modified by LogicallyFacts)

What are the facts?

We closely observed the viral image and noticed some discrepancies —one of Marsh’s feet resting on the stool seems distorted, and the stool itself is blurry. The area around the carpet near the stool’s leg is also blurry — indications that the image has been digitally edited. 

Discrepancies in the viral image (Source: X/Screenshot) 

A reverse-image search of the photo with the stool redirected us to images where the Australian cricketer was seen resting his legs on the World Cup trophy. 

According to a report by The Economic Times, Australian cricket team captain Pat Cummins first shared this image as an Instagram story on his official account (@patcummins30). Here, Marsh can be seen resting his legs on the World Cup Trophy. The same photo was also shared by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on their official Instagram account.

The verdict

Photo of Australian cricketer Mitchell Marsh resting his feet on the World Cup trophy is real, and the one with his feet on a stool is edited. Therefore, we mark this claim as fake.