Gayle's female guests arrested from hotel rooms

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Sri Lankan police arrested three British women who were socialising early on Wednesday in the hotel rooms of West Indies cricket players including star batsman Chris Gayle, police and sources said.

The women were later released on police bail and ordered to report when requested at a local police station, said an official who declined to be named, adding that they had not been charged.

Police bodyguards protecting players at the World Twenty20 tournament arrested the three Britons at the luxury Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo.

"Ministerial Security Division (MSD) guards assigned to protect the players carried out the arrest and the three women were handed over to the Kollupitiya police station for further investigations," police said in a statement.

Hotel sources said the women were guests of Gayle and his teammates Andre Russell, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith.

The sources insisted there was no breach of security at the tightly-guarded seventh floor reserved for players and team officials.

"There was no wrongdoing on the part of the players or the women and we are surprised at the police action," a hotel source told AFP. "It is not against the law to be a guest of a player."

West Indies will play Australia in the semi-finals on Friday.

The team's management declined comment. The International Cricket Council (ICC), organisers of the World Twenty20, confirmed it was aware of the incident.

Officials said the British High Commission (embassy) in Colombo had been informed about the arrests but made no further comment.

On September 24, a Sri Lankan broke into the rooms of two Australian cricketers at the same hotel and offered them sex. He was fined 1,000 rupees (eight dollars) and handed a one-month suspended jail term.

The ICC had described it as a "minor isolated incident".

Sri Lankan authorities have declared floors occupied by cricketers as out of bounds as part of the security plan during the September 18-October 7 tournament.

Hotel security has been a key issue at international cricket events since then-Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in his room during the World Cup in Jamaica in 2007.

His death was initially treated as murder before police concluded he died of natural causes.