Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Former Australian player Adam Gilchrist is the richest cricketer in the world
Fact
List confuses him for global fitness franchise co-founder, who shares the cricketer’s name
Several social media users are circulating a list of the “Top 10 richest cricketers in the world, 2023”, which places former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist at the top with an estimated net worth of $380 million, evoking reactions of surprise.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here, here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker saw that most of the tweets attributed the claim to CEO World Magazine. We looked up the website and found the list, titled “Top 10 Richest Cricketers In The World, 2023,” dated March 7, 2023. Contrary to the viral lists, the article places Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar at the top ($170 million net worth), followed by former captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni ($115 million) and Virat Kohli ($112 million). Gilchrist is not part of the list, although we could not independently verify if the list had been corrected.
A relevant keyword search led us to this tweet by the 51-year-old Australian cricketer, dated March 16, 2023, debunking the claim. “A case of mistaken identity here folks. Unless of course my namesake, who founded F45 played cricket,” he tweeted, confirming that the viral list is false.
Reports carrying Gilchrist’s clarification, stating that he was mistaken for his namesake and the co-founder of the Australian-based global fitness empire F45, can be seen here and here.
On probing further, we learned that F45 Training is a global fitness chain, and the former CEO of the company, also named Adam Gilchrist, is among the wealthiest people in Australia. The F45 Fitness founder) reportedly made the headlines in July 2021 when he earned around a whopping $500 million overnight. According to a news.com.au report, the gym franchise mogul left the company in July 2022, nine years after founding the fitness chain in Sydney with Rob Deutsch, walking away with a $10 million payout as its share price plummeted more than 60 percent.
Conclusion
Former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist is mistaken for his namesake, an Australian gym franchise mogul, in a list of richest cricketers around the world.
Result: False
Source
Tweet by Adam Gilchrist, March 16, 2023
CEO World Magazine article, March 7, 2023
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
