Aus women's cricketers allegedly 'touched inappropriately' in India

Two players in Australia's World Cup squad have allegedly been stalked and touched inappropriately while in India for the women's ODI cricket tournament.

A man has been arrested and charged.

The incident is thought to have happened near the team hotel on Thursday morning, the day after Australia's six-wicket win over England.

The players have been offered support, and are believed to be OK to continue playing in the tournament.

Australia's group stage match against South Africa in the city went ahead on Saturday with Australia winning convincingly.

"CA can confirm two members of the Australian women's team were approached and touched inappropriately by a motorcyclist while walking to a cafe in Indore," a Cricket Australia spokesperson said on Saturday night.

"The matter was reported by team security to police who are handling the matter."

"The security officers of the women's Australian cricket team filed a complaint that two members of the team faced inappropriate behaviour," additional deputy commissioner of police, Rajesh Dandotiya, told Indian news agency ANI.

"The accused was identified and arrested following an intensive strategic operation."

The man has been charged under sections 74 and 78 of the criminal code that respectively deal with assault or using criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty and stalking.

"It is a very condemnable but stray incident", Devajit Saikia, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India said in a statement.

"We appreciate the State Police (Madhya Pradesh) for their prompt action to nab the culprit. Let the law take its course to punish the culprit."

The statement added: "We assure to revisit our safety protocols if required to further tighten the security. In spite of our best efforts to have security, somehow this happened and therefore we fully condemn it."

The local cricket association of Madhya Pradesh issued a statement in which they said they were "deeply pained and shocked by the disturbing incident of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour".

"As the host, MPCA extends sincere apologies to the Australian women's team for this deeply distressing and unfortunate incident," the statement added.

Australia have spent large parts of this tournament in Indore, a city of five-and-a-half million people in west central India, with the clash with South Africa their third game at Holkar Stadium.

Players will leave the city on Sunday, with a semi-final against India on Thursday in Navi Mumbai.

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