Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
The thrill-filled South Africa’s tour of India has kept the cricket fans occupied over the past couple of weeks. Protean batsman David Miller amassed social media and news outlets’ attention the previous week after he smashed 106 runs in just 47 balls. Now, the South African cricketer is making headlines again, after a social media post where he paid an emotional tribute to “little rockstar.” Miller shared a video featuring a series of photographs of him with a young girl with the caption “RIP you little rockstar…Love you always!”
Several social media users shared the image of the cricketer with the young girl on both Twitter and Facebook, claiming the child to be his daughter.
Links to such posts can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.
Condolences messages to the Miller family began pouring in soon after. But Newschecker has found that the child is not his daughter but his “die hard fan”.
Also Read: Viral Video Showing ‘PM Narendra Modi Playing Cricket’ Is Actually Yograj Singh
Fact Check/Verification
We began our research by skimming through the comment section of David Miller’s Instagram post where several users pointed out that the girl was not his daughter, but a fan. We also spotted a comment by Jenny Miller- the cricketer’s mother– saying “A precious angel… Ane, you were an inspiration to those around you, a fighter… David, I am so proud of your compassionate, hope filled, loving, caring, giving unselfishly, kind, gentle and joyful heart you have towards your fellow human beings, as a parent it makes me extremely proud to know how valuable those things to you are in life. You were all those to Ane, as you journey with her and her family through her fight against cancer. RIP darling Ane.”
On further scanning through his Instagram account, we found a post dated March 22, 2017. Displaying a picture seen in the video posted by Miller mourning the death of his “little rockstar,” the post read, “What a special little soul. Her passion for life at 5 years is an example to me! Loved catching up with you Ane. Even made me some cup cakes! (sic)”
We could thus conclude that the deceased young girl seen in the viral post was Ane.
Further, we conducted a keyword search for “David Miller Ane” on Google which yielded multiple reports from the past 24 hours. One such report by The Economic Times, dated October 9, 2022, titled ‘’RIP you little rockstar’, South Africa batsman David Miller mourns loss of die-hard fan.’ Featuring Miller’s Instagram post, the report elaborated, “David Miller, the South African batsman renowned for his power-hitting, shared the sad news of the passing away of his die-hard fan Ane. However, social media is speculating if the deceased girl was his daughter, who passed away due to cancer.” The article concluded, “Ane wasn’t his daughter. She was his fan, battling cancer, and was very close to Miller.”
A Business Today report, dated October 9, 2022, stated, “South African cricketer David Miller on Saturday announced that one of his young fans, Ane, had passed away. Ane died after losing her years-long battle with cancer…”
Several other news outlets reported on the demise of Miller’s young fan. Such reports can be read here, here and here.
In a tweet dated October 9, 2022, Cricket-centric website CricTracker also shared images from Miller’s video. The same was captioned, “David Miller lost one of his biggest fans.”
Conclusion
Viral posts claiming that South African cricketer David Miller’s daughter died of cancer are false. The girl in the image is one of Miller’s young fans, Ane, who lost her battle to cancer, prompting the batsman to pay an emotional tribute to the “fighter” on social media.
Result: Partly False
Sources
Instagram Post By David Miller, Dated March 22, 2017
Report By Economic Times, Dated October 9, 2022
Report By Business Today, Dated October 9, 2022
Tweet By CricTracker, Dated October 9, 2022
Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
