Shoaib Malik tries to sort out marriage muddle: report

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Sunday, 04 Apr, 2010

NEW DELHI: Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik attempted in an interview published on Sunday to end confusion about his marital status ahead of his celebrity wedding to Indian tennis star Sania Mirza.

“Sania Mirza will be my first wife. I have been cheated by Ayesha Siddiqui,” Malik said, referring an Indian woman who claims he married her “by telephone” in 2002 and that she possesses documents to prove their alliance.

In an interview with The Times of India, Malik said he began a telephone relationship with Siddiqui in 2001 after she sent him photographs.

He and his family repeatedly attempted to meet Siddiqui as he wanted to marry her but she always refused, he said.

Malik admitted to the newspaper that in 2002 that he signed a “nikahnama”(wedding agreement) “thinking the girl I was marrying was the one in the photographs.”

But “the girl who was accepting the proposal was someone else. That’s cheating,” he said, without giving further details.

In yet another twist, Malik claimed he had spent time with Ayesha Siddiqui’s “elder sister” who told him that Ayesha would not meet him as she had put on weight. Malik said he now believes the “sister” was actually Ayesha herself.

The labyrinthine and often contradictory tale has attracted avid public attention across Pakistan and India, two countries normally locked in fierce rivalry.

Malik, 28, arrived on Saturday in the Indian city of Hyderabad, where he is scheduled to marry 23-year-old Mirza on April 15.

The couple — who are both Muslim — plan to live in Dubai after the ceremony.

But Siddiqui has threatened to sue Malik, a wealthy international sportsman, if he refuses to “formally divorce” her before marrying Mirza.

Siddiqui has circulated supposed copies of her nuptial agreement to media outlets in both India and Pakistan and has appeared on television regularly since Mirza and Malik announced they were getting married.

“Malik can marry Sania Mirza only after divorcing me,” Siddiqui told the CNN-IBN news channel. “He dumped me because his teammates said I was fat.”

Mirza, whose short tennis skirts have drawn the ire of religious groups in India, is recovering from a wrist injury that has seen her world ranking slip from 27 in 2007 to 92.

She has been a nationwide celebrity since 2005 when aged 18 she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title.

Only in January, she broke off an engagement to a childhood friend, saying they were “incompatible as fiances”.

She previously said she would retire from tennis once married, but on Sunday Malik told reporters in Hyderabad that her career would continue.

“Sania will play tennis until she wants to not play. She will play for India,” he said. “My family and I will support her.”

He declined to comment further on Siddiqui’s allegations, saying only that “Sania knows the truth and she is very happy.”

Malik, a former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, is serving a year-long ban for indiscipline.

The Delhi-based Mail Today newspaper printed a copy of the apparent wedding agreement between Malik and Siddiqui. It appeared to be signed by them both, but not — as legally required — by any witnesses.

Arranged marriages when the bride and groom have not met before are common in Islam, but Muslim scholars dismiss the concept of a “telephone wedding”.