Former India captain Sourav Ganguly confirmed on Monday, August 6 that an Instagram profile with his name on the popular photo-sharing platform is fake.
Ganguly took to Twitter to make the clarification after a post which quoted him giving advice to India captain Virat Kohli went viral.
The 46-year-old warned the media not to pick up any news or quotes from the "fake" page after several publications and television channels quoted him as saying what was written in the viral post.
My Instagram page is a fake one ..please don’t pick up any news or quotes from it ..Will report to Instagram immediately @samiprajguru @imVkohli
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) August 6, 2018
The unverified profile Ganguly was referring to had 219 posts and more than 55,000 followers as of 12 am on August 7.
The description on the page reads: "Ex Captain: Indian Cricket Team | President : CAB | Co-Owner : ATK | Author : Juggernaut Books."
It also has a note saying that the posts from Ganguly himself are signed "SG".
Instagram post quoted Ganguly as criticsing Kohli
The latest post, which had several tips to Kohli and his team on how to handle English conditions in the ongoing five-Test series in the Old Blighty, had a similar signature.
The latest post, which has more than 10,000 likes, lamented the lack of support to Kohli from other Indian batsman after India lost the first Test in Edgbaston by 31 runs.
It also urged captain Kohli to stop chopping and changing too much and show more faith in his batters.
Notably, Kohli had scored 200 runs (149 in the first and 51 in the second innings) but the visitors still fell short of the 194-run target.
"#AjinkyaRahane & #MuraliVijay will have to show some determination since they have scored runs in these conditions before. I don't think the captain is responsible for the loss. If you're the captain then you'll be criticised for a loss the same way as you're congratulated for a win. One criticism for @Virat.Kohli is that he should give a consistent run to his batters & more time before dropping them (sic)," the post read.
It added: "You can't be excused all the time & we have lost before in 2011 & 2014. You've to bat well. It's a very well known fact that the ball will swing in England the same way as Australia is known for its pacy wickets. So if previously you've scored runs there is no reason you can't now."
Check out these screengrabs from the said Instagram profile here.
