5 foreign cricketers who fell in love with Indian women

There are a number of love stories of celebrated cricketers with Indian women. Let’s take a look at five such cricketers:

#5 Vivian Richards

One of the greatest cricketers of all time, Vivian Richards fell in love with Indian actress Neena Gupta. The West Indian cricketer’s relationship with Gupta created a huge media buzz.

In spite of being in a society which doesn't accept such relations, the Indian actress decided to keep their love child, Masaba Gupta. She brought the little girl up on her own, who is now one of the famous fashion designers of the country.

Later, Neena Gupta settled in Delhi after getting married to businessman Vivek Mehra. Richards keeps coming back to India to fulfil his duties as a father. The three of them even go on vacations together when they get a chance to.

Masaba often speaks highly of her father and feels proud to be known as Sir Viv Richard's daughter.

#4 Shoaib Malik

This is undoubtedly one of the most controversial and publicised weddings in the history of sport. No one seemed to have a clue when love blossomed between Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik and Indian tennis queen Sania Mirza.

The two first met in Australia, where the cricketer lost a Test match against the Aussies and the tennis star had crashed out of the Australian Open.

While the rival nations compete with each other at each level to prove their superiority, the two lovebirds announced their marriage to the public. Comments and speculation from people started soon after that but Sania shut the haters up by saying: "I was not marrying a Pakistani, I was marrying a person. People try to make political statements but forget that we are human beings."

They got married on 2 April 2010 and the great part is both continue playing for their respective nations in their chosen fields.

#3 Muttiah Muralitharan

Sri Lanka's leading wicket-taker and spinner Muttiah Muralitharan fell in love with Madhimalar Ramamurthy, a Tamil girl who is the daughter of Nithya and S. Ramamurthy - the owners of Malar hospitals. Muralitharan got married to her in 2005 and the couple also have a son, who was born in 2006.

Madhi was interested in everything other than cricket but that was not a problem. According to her, "What I really liked about him was he was always smiling. When somebody smiles at you like that, you feel so relaxed and comfortable. It was very important for me to feel comfortable. I knew he was a celebrated cricketer, but I had to feel comfortable with such a person. He was such a simple and down to earth person that I liked him immediately. I also told him what I expect from a husband. He spoke very honestly about himself, which was very important for me as I am going to live with him."

#2 Shaun Tait

Australian pacer Shaun Tait was bowled over by Indian super model Mashoom Singha. They dated for four years before getting married in June 2014.

Tait met the love of his life when he was playing the Indian Premier League in 2010. Mashoom said: "I was doing a fashion show at the after-party. We kept bumping into each other. And one thing led to another."

Tait proposed to her in Paris, a year before their marriage. The Indo-Australian wedding took place in Mumbai and the celebrations went on for a week as Tait’s friends came all the way from Australia to Mumbai. Indian cricketers like Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were also part of the celebrations.

#1 Gary Sobers

West Indian all-rounder Garry Sobers fell in love with Indian actress Anju Mahendru, who was looking to make a place in Bollywood at that point of time.

The two of them were almost ready to get hitched, and Mahendru even broke off her engagement with superstar Rajesh Khanna to accept Gary’s proposal. But destiny had other ideas as Anju’s parents did not support the relationship. They were very much against their daughter’s choice and Anju respected the decision, thus ending the affair.

Gary Sobers in his autobiography wrote about Anju Mahendru (which in his book is spelt as 'Mahindu'). Sobers remembers her fondly: “She was so beautiful and such a nice person". It was in the book that he revealed for the first time that he intended to take her to England for marriage, but some things aren’t meant to be. The duo have remained good friends, though.