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Wedding Bells for Shoaib-Sania?

DUBAI - After calling off her engagement earlier this year with her childhood friend, Mohammed Sohrab Mirza, Sania Mirza is back in news. This time the link up of the Indian tennis star is with former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik.

It is reported that Sania is engaged to Malik and they might tie the knot in April. The news which took shape after a Pakistan based news channel broke it also confirmed that Shoaib’s mother met Sania’s parents in India and decided on the wedding. The reception is likely to be held in Lahore in mid-April.

The news gained momentum after sources close to Mirza’s family confirmed the news but refused to divulge any further information. But the sources also confirmed that both Sania and Malik were going around for a few months now which also could have been one of the reasons for Sania to call off her engagement with Sohrab.

Sania Mirza has broken her engagement citing “incompatibility” and the decision to part ways was taken with mutual consent.

The 23-year-old Hyderabadi had got engaged to 24-year-old Sohrab, who is from an influential business family, in July last year. Sania in a statement had said: “We were friends for years but found ourselves incompatible as fiances. I wish Sohrab the very best in life.”

Sania’s father Imran Mirza said “It has been mutual. Everything has happened in a very nice manner because both the families are so close to each other.”

Repeated efforts to contact Malik who is in UAE to participate in the PCL T20 Bashundhara Cup Twenty20 went in vain. He is part of the Mohammedan Sporting Club and will be playing his second match on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Malik was engaged to a girl named Ayesha Siddiqui from Hyderabad a few years back. But he later called it off which had kicked off a huge row with the girl’s parents claiming Malik had married her and later was denying it.

Malik had said in January 2008 that his marriage plans with Ayesha ended because both families failed to reach an understanding on certain issues. But, Ayesha’s family claimed that the marriage had taken place in 2002 and her father MA Siddiqui had also threatened to sue Malik and demanded him to give a formal divorce.

Malik had earlier 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.

jaiprasad@khaleejtimes.com