A Sri Lankan court has convicted a 21-year-old man who broke into the hotel rooms of two Australian cricketers and offered them sex during the ongoing World Twenty20.
The Sri Lankan, named as Abdul Karim, was fined 1,000 rupees ($7.39) and handed a one-month suspended jail term after he pleaded guilty to a charge of breaking and entering.
The man breached supposedly tight security last Monday at the luxury Cinnamon Grand hotel in central Colombo where the Australian team were staying ahead of their game against India on Friday.
"The man had gone into a player's room offering his services as a male escort," a police officer involved in the case told AFP.
"The player refused and he barged into another room when the Australians alerted hotel security."
The authorities had declared floors occupied by cricketers as out-of-bounds as part of security for players during the September 18-October 7 tournament that was billed as the same level as for visiting heads of state.
"No harm was done, but the intrusion was a serious embarrassment," a senior official coordinating security for the tournament told AFP.
"Since then, we have reviewed the arrangements and taken some new measures."
A source in the hotel told AFP that Karim had worked previously at the Cinnamon Grand while employed for a local auditing firm.
Neither police nor security officials named the players involved.
"It was a minor and isolated incident involving an over-enthusiastic cricket fan, which was reported immediately by the Australian team management," said Sami ul-Hasan, a spokesman for the International Cricket Council (ICC).
"The trespasser has been dealt with by the law and the security for the tournament has been tightened," he added.
The Australian team declined to comment when contacted.
ABC/AFP
Tags: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, cricket, sport, sri-lanka, australia First posted September 28, 2012 22:19:09
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