Indian Decade

Cricket Controversy

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Indian Decade

Cricket Controversy

As expected, a controversial sports celebrity wedding is making media waves.

It does feel good to be proven right. In my last blog, I talked about whether Sania Mirza was prepared for the public spectacle her impending wedding to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik was going to be in India. Well, there’s been little else making news this weekend. Shoaib Malik’s supposed ex-wife, in Hyderabad, has accused the cricketer of cheating her and her family, and demanded a public divorce before he can wed Sania. Her family held a prime time Friday evening press conference in which they spoke of how Shoaib had married their daughter, and produced documents to boot. Shoaib on the other hand, currently in Hyderabad, talked to news reporters to say how he had been tricked by the Siddiqui family, his alleged in-laws.

We can’t know for sure who’s right. But, what’s clearly a personal crisis has become a public controversy for the entire nation. It’s occupying so much national mind space that one of our most senior journalists and commentators Vir Sanghvi wrote a piece on it for the Sunday edition of Hindustan Times. Do read it. And, one can’t help but feel bad for Sania. After all, she’s just a 23-year-old girl in love. It surely can’t be much fun to have over a billion people have an opinion on your love life.