Cricket-celebrity weddings!
Here's a look at the affairs that resulted in wedlock between actors and cricketers over the last 50 years.
Love stories between cricket and Bollywood continue to charm us — right from the time when the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi married yesteryear film star and heart-throb of the nation, Sharmila Tagore, in the late 1960s to now, when Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma are set to tie the knot at a glamorous destination wedding.
Even in 1996, when former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin and actress Sangeeta Bijlani got married, it got widespread media attention, especially since the cricketer had divorced his first wife Naureen. Azharuddin and Sangeeta eventually decided to part ways 14 years later. Meanwhile, former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar also divorced his wife, Sandhya, to marry the ’90s Bollywood actress Farheen; the couple currently reside in Delhi.
Most recently, we witnessed the grand wedding ceremonies of cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh. While the specialist spin bowler married actress Geeta Basra in 2015, Yuvi got hitched to British-Mauritius model and actress Hazel Keech in November last year. Also, former Indian left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan recently got engaged to Sagarika Ghatge of Chak De! India fame and the pair are set to get married soon.
This phenomenon of cricketer-celebrity marriage isn’t prominent in India alone. Former Pakistani cricketer, Mohsin Khan, married Indian actress Reena Roy, but the two divorced later. Swashbuckling English batsman Kevin Pietersen got hitched to former Liberty X singer Jessica Taylor, and former South African skipper Graeme Smith was married to Irish pop singer Morgan Deane for five years and seven months before getting divorced.
The starry-eyed couple, Virat and Anushka’s romance has been the talk of Bollywood for a while now. Their devotion to each other despite their chaotic schedules has been noted by the industry as well as team India, which has played cupid to many a romantic couple over time. And, on this happy occasion, Virat’s fans are surely hoping that the marriage could prove lucky for the player who’s set to conquer all batting records.