Virat Kohli fumes at ‘invasion of privacy’ after hotel room video; Crown Towers hotel issues apology

Crown Towers on October 31 issued an apology to star Indian batter Virat Kohli after his privacy was intruded on by an unidentified person in the hotel, saying that an investigation is being conducted with a third-party contractor and individual involved has been “stood and removed from the Crown account”.

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli on October 31 expressed shock at the “appalling” video of his Perth hotel room that surfaced on social media and said he was disappointed by the “fanaticism and absolute invasion of privacy”.

“We unreservedly apologise 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 Towers was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

“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,” they added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has also expressed its disappointment with the incident in a statement. The ICC said it was “incredibly disappointed by the gross invasion of privacy” that Kohli had faced.

“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,” added ICC.

“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??” Virat posted on his Instagram account.

He also shared the video that has been circulated on Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms and said that he is “not okay with this kind of fanaticism”.

The video shared purportedly takes a tour of Virat’s room with shoes, suitcases, a visual of the room’s washroom, some personal belongings.

At one point in the video that was titled “King Kohli’s hotel room” a man who is apparently filming the video opens the wardrobe where the viewer gets to see an iron box.

Virat said, “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.”

Notably, Virat is having a fine ICC T20 World Cup so far. The batter has scored 156 runs in three matches so far with two half-centuries, including his instant-classic match-winning 82* against Pakistan.

He is the third-highest run scorer in the tournament so far.

He also completed 1,000 runs at ICC T20 World Cup events on Sunday, becoming only the second player to do so. However, he did not have a great outing against South Africa as he could score only 12 runs and dropped a crucial catch of batter Aiden Markram.

He will be next seen in action against Bangladesh on November 2.