Sports stars Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik to enter wedlock

Indian’s leading tennis star Sania Mirza is all set to marry Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, Sania’s family on Monday confirmed at Hyderabad. The confirmation of the news was first aired on a Pakistani television channel, it is said.

Sania's father Imran Mirza was quoted in an Indian television channel yesterday as saying that the reports of his daughter’s proposed marriage with Malik were true. A formal wedding reception has been scheduled within a month.

According to the channel, he said that after the marriage the couple would settle down in Dubai. He also said that both Sania and Malik would continue to represent their countries in their respective games.

According to Geo News, Shoaib Malik's mother met the family of Sania, and sought Sania for her son. The channel claimed that Sania's family has accepted the proposal and the two families are all set to conduct the engagement of the two.

The channel even claimed that the engagement ceremony was expected to take place next month. Accoording to another source there may not be an engagement.

It may be remembered, Sania was proposed to marry her childhood friend Sohrab Mirza and six months after the engagement took place in Hyderabad amid much fanfare, Sania decided to part ways with Sohrab. This marriage talks with Malik comes two months after she called off her engagement with Sohrab Mirza, citing "incompatibility".

Interestingly, there is a similar incidence in Shoaib Malik’s life. He was also engaged to a girl from the same southern Indian city a few years ago but he later called it off. The family of the girl had even claimed that the married of the two did take place but the Pakistani star denied this.

The name of the girl Malik was engaged in January 2002 was Ayesha Siddiqui and it was said it ended because both families could not reach an understanding on certain issues.

However, the girl's family claimed that they had entered the wedlock through 'nikah' over telephone in 2002 and had even threatened to sue Malik for cheating and demanded him to give a formal divorce.

Malik was also quoted by Pakistani media as saying that Ayesha was not the girl he met in Dubai and that her family cheated him by sending a photograph of another girl.

Malik had reportedly met Ayesha in Dubai and they decided to marry. The Pakistani cricket team was given a grand reception by Ayesha's parents at their residence here when the team toured India in 2005. Interestingly, Ayesha had not come out at the reception and did not even meet Shoaib, saying she was down with some allergic problem.

- Asian Tribune -