An unverified report claiming the Lanka Premier League opening match between Colombo Kings and Kandy Tuskers had a 100 million viewership worldwide has been widely disputed on social media.

The story first came from a personal Twitter account that, quoting “our American satellite sources”, said the first match of Sri Lanka’s T20 League had such a massive online viewership. These satellite sources were not named nor did the “quoted” statistics seem realistic. The person who first posted these unattributed figures identifies himself as an Athlete Manager on Twitter.

Although this was widely disputed by a number of Twitter users who commented on the post, this seemingly wrong figure was then posted on a Facebook fan page for Lanka Premier League. Then it was widely shared by a large number of uncritical Sri Lankan social media users who were elated by this “massive global viewership”.

Many observers who expressed views on the matter said the Indian Premier League (IPL) opening match had a viewership of 158 million worldwide and there was no way that the opening match of the Sri Lankan league could reach a 100 million viewership.

Despite these disputed figures, the opening match of Lanka Premier League was a nail-biter that ended in a super over. Colombo Kings led by former Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews finally won the exciting contest.