'Would appreciate if her images aren’t clicked’: Virat Kohli issues statement after visuals of daughter Vamika surface

Former India captain Virat Kohli issued a statement after images of his wife Anushka Sharma holding their daughter Vamika were widely circulated on social media. The cricketer-actor couple, who have been fiercely protective of Vamika's privacy, urged people to respect their stance on it. 

"Hi guys! We realise that our daughter's images were captured at the stadium yesterday and widely shared thereafter. We want to inform everyone that we were caught off guard and didn't know that the camera was on us. Our stance and request on the matter stays the same. We would really appreciate it if Vamika's images are not clicked/published for reasons we have explained earlier," he wrote on Instagram.  

Both Anushka and Vamika were present at Cape Town during the third and final ODI against South Africa, which India lost by four runs. It was during the live telecast, visuals of Anushka holding Vamika in her arms emerged. The camera lingered on them for a few seconds before the feed cut back to the ground. 

Kohli also dedicated his half-century to his daughter and was seen celebrating the milestone with a cradle gesture. He scored 65 off 84 balls before getting out to Keshav Maharaj. Meanwhile, this was his second half-century in the series, having earlier scored 51 off 63 in the series opener in Paarl last week before registering a five-ball duck in the second match. 

In a statement in December last year, the couple made a request for Vamika's privacy when a section of the media shared her photos. They had released a statement then, which read: "We seek privacy for our child and would like to do our best to give her a chance to live her life freely away from media and social media. As she is older, we cannot restrict her movement and hence your support is needed so kindly practice (refrain) in the matter. A special thank you to fan clubs and people of the internet for going out of your way to not post images. It was kind and highly mature of you."