Indian cricketer Virat Kohli shared a shocking incident on Monday morning when he posted footage showing a stranger entering his hotel room at Crown Hotel in Perth and shooting a video. The clip showed all of Kohli’s personal belongings, such as idols of god, his shoes, jerseys and other kinds of stuff.
Kohli detailed the breach of his privacy through a video on his Instagram page, a day after India finished their game against South Africa, where the Men in Blue lost by five wickets. Following Kohli’s revelation, the International Cricket Council (ICC) issued a statement in which the apex body expressed its disappointment over the whole episode.
“The ICC is incredibly disappointed by the gross invasion of privacy suffered by a member of the Indian traveling party at the Crown Perth, during their team’s pre-event preparation ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. 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,” said ICC in an official statement.
Notably, Kohli was not happy with the incident as he penned down a note in which the former skipper said he understands the excitement of fans, but there has to be a limit as he is not at all okay with the invasion of his privacy.
“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,” Kohli had said.
Further, Hotel Crown also apologized to Kohli and said such incidents wouldn’t happen again before revealing that they have sacked the person involved in breaching of Kohli’s privacy.