Virat Kohli and India coach Rahul Dravid condemned the breach of privacy at Kohli’s hotel room in Perth during the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia.
Kohli shared a video on his Instagram page on Monday which was shot by unidentified people in Kohli’s room. In the video captioned “King Kohli’s hotel room”, a person gives a tour of Kohli’s hotel room.
In his post, Kohli wrote, “I understand that fans get very happy and excited seeing their favourite players and get excited to meet them and I’ve always appreciated that. But this video here is appalling and it’s made me feel very paranoid about my privacy. If I cannot have privacy in my own hotel room, then where can I really expect any personal space at all?? I’m NOT okay with this kind of fanaticism and absolute invasion of privacy. Please respect people’s privacy and not treat them as a commodity for entertainment.”
Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of India’s match against Bangladesh, Dravid responded to a query on how the former Indian captain is doing now.
“It’s obviously disappointing, it’s not very comfortable for anyone, let alone Virat,” Dravid said. “It is disappointing but we have flagged it with the relevant authorities, they have taken action and hopefully incidents like this will not happen in the future and hopefully people are more careful.”
“It is the one place where you feel you are away from people’s prying eyes and away from the media glare on you, without the photographs that these players have to deal with. It’s the one place you hope to feel secure and safe and that is taken away it’s not a nice feeling. He’s dealt with it really well, he’s fine and he’s training.”
Crown Towers, the hotel in which the Indian team was staying, apologised for the breach of privacy and said the individuals who took the video “have been stood down and removed from the Crown account”. According to a report by cricket.com.au, Crown Resorts stated that they were aware of the clip which was shot by a contractor working at its Burswood hotel and casino complex and apologised to Kohli.
The ICC also condemned the incident stating, “We continue to work with event hotels and security providers to ensure that this remains an isolated incident and player privacy is fully respected at all times.”
India are currently in Adelaide for their match against Bangladesh before travelling to Melbourne to play their final Group 2 match against Zimbabwe.
