Sunday 29 / December / 2024
Perth : Star Indian batter Virat Kohli on Monday 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."
"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."
Fans and celebrities took to slam offender and posted on Virat's wall in comments section to express their disgust.
Australian opener David Warner commented while tagging the hotel, "This is ridiculous, totally unacceptable. Was this @crownperth."
"Whosoever is responsible for this blunder should be shameful, a man who is dedicated towards the country and giving his maximum amount of time amongst the crowd should at least have some peaceful time in his own hotel room. This type of fanaticism is sick and should not be appreciated anywhere," commented a fan.
"This is completely wrong. We have to respect the privacy of any human even if that person is our favourite player. We do love him but we should respect his private space too," another fan commented.
"Omg ...why would anyone do that and how did the hotel staff even allow this ... really not civilised behaviour ...," added another fan.
Another fan commented, "What the hell! Give this guy some space at least. Come not done this is.".
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.
