Adelaide, Nov 1 India head coach Rahul Dravid called the invasion of privacy of talismanic batter Virat Kohli as ‘disappointing’, while adding that the incident is something which is not a comfortable one for anyone.
On Monday, Kohli posted a video on social media, revealing that there was a breach of privacy at his hotel room in Perth. The video, which was originally uploaded on TikTok by an unidentified user, had visuals of a tour of the room and was captioned as “King Kohli’s hotel room”.
“It’s obviously disappointing. It’s not very comfortable for anyone, let alone Virat. It is disappointing. But we have flagged it with the relevant authorities. They’ve taken action,” said Dravid in the pre-match press conference ahead of India’s match against Bangladesh at Adelaide on Wednesday.
Dravid added that a hotel room is one place where the players feel secure without the sight of media and public, and when that privacy is breached, it is not at all a nice feeling.
“It’s the one place where you hope to feel secure and safe. That’s taken away, it’s not really a nice feeling. But I think he’s dealt with it really well. He’s fine. He’s here at training. He’s absolutely perfect. We’ve taken it up with the relevant authorities, and that’s all we can do.”
“Hopefully incidences like this will not happen in the future, and hopefully people are a lot more careful because it’s the one place where you feel you are away from people’s prying eyes and without the media glare on you and without the photographs that all of these players have to deal with.”
While sharing the video of his invasion of privacy at the team hotel, Kohli had written, “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.”
Crown Towers, the hotel where Indian team stayed during their match against South Africa in Perth on Sunday and also during a ten-day preparatory camp in the city before the start of Men’s T20 World Cup, had apologised “unreservedly” to Kohli and said it had removed the individuals involved in the act.
“We unreservedly apologise to the guest involved and will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure this remains an isolated incident. 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,” said their official statement.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) also said in a statement that 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.”
–IANS