Crown Perth Hotel fires employee involved in Virat Kohli's privacy breach, ICC says THIS

Zee News

Former India captain Virat Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma's privacy was breached when a video of fan entering their room and taking videos and photos while the charismatic batter was playing the ICC T20 World Cup Super-12 game against South Africa here on Sunday evening. After the incident, Crown Perth Hotel mangement fired the employee involved in the incident. International Cricket Council (ICC) which is responsible for the mangement of the T20 World Cup 2022 has also issued a statement where they apologised for the incident.

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"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 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," ICC's spokesperson said.

Kohli posted a video on social media, which was originally posted on another social media app by an unidentified user with a caption, 'King Kohli's hotel room'. The short video scans through the room where Kohli was staying.

"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," Kohli wrote on Instagram, while also posting the video taken by the unidentified fan.

"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 added.

Anushka too took to social media to express her anger over the alleged video of the hotel room, saying, "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 and anyone who sees this and thinks 'celebrity ho Toh deal karna parega (if you are a celebrity you have to deal with such things)!', should know that you're also part of the problem.

"Exercising some self control helps everyone. Also if this is happening in your bedroom then where is the line?" Anushka questioned.

Reacting to Kohli's post, actor Urvashi Rautela said on her verified account, "Absolutely!! Immoral, unscrupulous imagine they did same with a girl's room #unprincipled #dishonourable," while Australian batting stalwart David Warner wrote, "This is ridiculous, totally unacceptable. Was this @crownperth (name of hotel)."

Australian opener David Warner too expressed anger at the incident. "This is ridiculous, totally unacceptable. Was this @crownperth?," Warner commented on Kohli's post. Kohli's wife and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, expectedly, lashed out at people who disrespect people's privacy. "Have experienced few incidents, where 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 and anyone who sees this and thinks 'celebrity ho! Toh deal karna padega should know that you are also part of the problem'," fumed Anushka in her Instagram story.

"Exercising some self control helps everyone. Also, if this is happening in your bedroom then where is the line," she wrote.
Virat and Anushka had requested the media to abstain from publishing the pictures of their daughter, Vamika, in January this year after the images of the infant were shown by the broadcaster during India's tour of South Africa.