Top five Indian cricket weddings (original) (raw)

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni wanted to keep his marriage to Sakshi Rawat a secret, but like all things related to his cricket, even the nuptials and the engagement turned out to be a dramatic affair. Here’s a list of top five cricket weddings that had the nation hooked.
Mohd Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani
This one wasn't sans drama too. Azhar, who surpassed Sunil Gavaskar as the most successful Indian skipper, met the former Miss India while shooting for a commercial in 1994 and was immediately bowled over by her charms.

Azhar, a happily married man at that time, was a father of two sons. His first marriage ended in divorce in the middle of the 1996 World Cup which India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were jointly hosting and he married Bijlani in December '96. Azharuddin, a simple man and a devout Muslim, suddenly became more colourful after his marriage to Bijlani and the media and his close friends, blamed the 'negative' changes and the drastic loss in form on Bijlani. The couple continue to be together.
Sania Mirza & Shoaib Malik

This turned out to be the mother of all weddings as it took place between two high-profile sportsmen between colonial cousins and neighbours India and Pakistan. Sania, a tennis player, who managed to reach unprecedented heights for an Indian sportswoman and Malik, a former captain of Pakistan and a man who had excelled against India. That both had broken relationships prior to their alliance only added spice to the whole story. Malik, had married

Ayesha Siddiqui

in Hyderabad in 2005 over the phone, while Sania’s engagement to Sohrab Mirza ended in less than six months. Sania and Shoaib though had met in Hobart this year when Pakistan were touring Australia and Sania was there playing in a WTA event. Sparks of course flew and it soon became a raging issue when the cricketer and the tennis star chose to tie the knot in mid April. Ayesha Siddiqui and family demanded a divorce and Rs. 15 crore in alimony.
Tiger Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore
When Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and the then Bollywood heartthrob Sharmila Tagore decided to be man or wife on December 27, 1969 it gave the cynics of the country enough dope to decide how long the marriage would last. The wedding of the then Indian captain to a Miss India, had the people going gaga. Their courtship began four years before the wedding when Tagore had visited Delhi for a shoot and Pataudi was introduced to her through common friends. Sparks flew despite Tagore rejecting Pataudi's gift (a refrigerator) but accepting bouquets of roses and soon they were seeing each other despite both their families being against their wedding. Tagore's parents, Bengali Hindus, were not happy that their daughter would marry into a Nawab family while Pataudi’s family thought that Tiger was marrying a sex symbol, a thought they considered blasphemous. Tagore quit acting in films despite being at the top of her career, a fact which gave more grist to the rumour mills and doubting Thomases who had predicted that the couple ould split soon. But 41 years later, the couple continue to be happily married.
Sachin Tendulkar and Dr. Anjali Mehta
The marriage of India's youth icon and a paediatrician who was five years elder to him in the summer of 1995 had the nation obsessed. Few knew who Dr Anjali Mehta, a daughter of a Gujarati Indian and a lady of British origin. Tendulkar and Anjali first met each other in 1990 at Mumbai's International airport where Anjali had gone to receive her parents and Tendulkar, after hitting his first Test century in England, was returning with the Indian team. Few were to know that the casual meeting was to result in a life-long partnership. The couple got engaged in New Zealand in 1994 and married a year later in a Central Mumbai temple. The couple have two kids, daughter Sarah, 12 and son Arjun 10 and are happily married.
Sourav Ganguly and Dona
Love Thy Neighbour they say. Sourav Ganguly took that seriously as he fell for the girl next door in Behala and the daughter of the family's business partners, Dona Ganguly, also an Odissi dancer. But things weren't as smooth as the southpaw's off-side play as the business partners fell out and the Ganguly's weren't too keen on accepting a non-Brahmin as a daughter-in-law. But Ganguly decided to play rebel with a cause and the moment he landed from England after his debut 100 at Lord's, he went for a registered marriage in August '96, which was kept a secret. The family were still upset though. Later, things cooled down and they accepted Dona.