Shoaib Malik and Indian Tennis Star Sania Mirza To Get Hooked in Wedding Knot in April 2010

HYDERABAD: India's tennis player, Sania Mirza is to be married to Shoaib Malik, the former cricket captain of Pakistan. A formal wedding reception has been scheduled within a month. There will be no engagement function.

This news was confirmed by Imran Mirza, father of Sania, late on Monday night.

“The couple will be based in Dubai, where Shoaib is a resident, and Sania will continue to play tennis once she recovers fully from the wrist injury that has marred her career in the recent past,” Imran said.

“My wedding is going to be the biggest day of my life.

“I have been under constant glare of the public for too long and would appreciate more privacy at this very personal moment in my life,” Sania said.

“I hope to be fully fit to represent India in the Commonwealth and Asian Games that are scheduled for later this year,” she added.

The news of Sania’s proposed marriage with Malik came two months after she called off her engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza, citing ‘incompatibility’.

Six months after the engagement took place here amid much fanfare, Sania decided to part ways with Sohrab.

Interestingly, Shoaib Malik was also engaged to a girl from this southern Indian city a few years ago but he later called it off. The family of the girl had even claimed that he had married her but thePakistani star denied this.

Malik had said in January 2008 that his marriage plans with Ayesha Siddiqui ended because both families could not reach an understanding on certain issues.

However, the girl’s family claimed that the they entered the wedlock through ‘nikah’ over telephone in 2002. Ayesha’s father M.A. Siddiqui 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.