Indian cricketer Virat Kohli requested fans to protect his privacy after a video of his personal belongings emerged on social media.
A video emerged Monday, showing the hotel room and personal belongings of Indian batter Virat Kohli on social media. The video was shot in secrecy in his absence. Video immediately went viral on social media. Virat Kohli is with the Indian cricket team in Australia for T20 World Cup 2022.
Kohli shared the video on his Instagram account with a message for his fans. “I understand that fans get very happy and excited seeing their favorite 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,” wrote Kohli.
“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,” he added.
Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma too shared her two cents on the incident. “Have experienced a few incidents where some fans have shown no compassion or grace in the past but this really is the worst thing. An absolute disgrace and violation of a human being,” said Anushka.
Condemnation against hotel management is pouring on social media. Cricket fans demanded action against the people involved in filming the video. Australian player David Warner also commented on the video and said, “This is ridiculous, totally unacceptable.”
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Hotel Management apologized
According to the media reports, the hotel Crown Perth has removed the person involved in this.
“We unreservedly apologize to the guest involved and will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure this remains an isolated incident,” the hotel management said in a statement. “Crown has taken immediate steps to rectify the issue. The individuals involved have been stood down and removed from the Crown account, and the original video was swiftly removed from the social media platform.
“Crown is conducting an investigation with the third-party contractor and will take any further steps necessary to ensure an incident of this nature does not happen again. We are also cooperating with the Indian Cricket team and the International Cricket Council to convey our apologies and will continue to work with them as we progress the investigation.”
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The ICC said it was “incredibly disappointed by the gross invasion of privacy” that Kohli had suffered. “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.”