Indian cricket legend Virat Kohli has been left "very paranoid" after posting a video which appeared to show a stranger inside his hotel room in Australia.
Kohli has been in majestic form with the bat thus far down under, cracking 82 not out to lead his side to a famous win over Pakistan, before an unbeaten 62 helped India to another win over Netherlands. But their form was halted on Sunday with a tense defeat to South Africa in Perth.
And it proved a bad day for the 33-year-old off the field as well as on it. A video later emerged on social media of a fan seemingly recording themselves walking around his hotel room, with Kohli himself later sharing the footage along with an emotional message to his 221 million followers.
"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," the icon wrote on Instagram. "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."
The video was captioned 'King Kohli's Hotel Room', and provided a close up look on the belongings of the icon, exploring all parts of the hotel room.
A spokesperson from the International Cricket Council said the authority is "incredibly disappointed by the gross invasion of privacy suffered by a member of the Indian traveling party at the Crown Perth."
The statement added: "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."
A Crown Resorts spokesperson said: "We are aware of an incident involving a contractor and the privacy of a guest at Crown Perth. The safety and privacy of our guests is our number one priority, and we are incredibly disappointed this incident has occurred. We unreservedly apologise to the guest involved and will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure this remains an isolated incident.
"We have zero tolerance for this behaviour, and it falls well below the standards we set for our team members and contractors. Crown took immediate steps to rectify the issue, including launching an investigation, standing down the individuals involved and removing them from the Crown account. The original video was also swiftly removed from the social media platform."
