Cricket's glamour weddings

When Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi, married the actor Sharmila Tagore, the event caused both excitement and debate. Pataudi was not only captain of India and a style icon; he was also royalty, and at the time it was frowned upon in conservative India for a royal to marry someone from the film industry, especially someone who had donned a bikini in a photoshoot. Add to this, the two were from different communities. Nonetheless, the pair were married at the Pataudi palace in 1968 in a well-documented ceremony and have since become symbols of modernity. They had three children, two of whom - Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan - are famous actors.

With his upturned collar and passion for watches, Mohammad Azharuddin, the former India captain, was clearly someone with a penchant for the glamorous life. Sangeeta Bijlani had won the Miss India contest in 1980 and moved on to acting in films. There were rumours about the two dating through the early 1990s, made all the more scandalous because Azharuddin was then married with two children. The gossip took an ugly turn when people began postulating that his relationship with Bijlani was affecting Azharuddin's form. He eventually divorced his first wife, Naureen, and married Bijlani in 1996.

Before his autobiography-writing days, Kevin Pietersen was considered the new saviour of English cricket. So, when he began dating pop singer Jessica Taylor, a former member of the group Liberty X, the media were all over the story. The two were married in an intimate function at the Manor House Hotel in Wiltshire. Fast bowler Darren Gough was Pietersen's best man.

Sania Mirza became the most searched-for woman tennis player in the world in 2010, a year in which she won no Grand Slam titles. Such was the buzz around her wedding to Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan allrounder. Given the political tensions between India and Pakistan, two high-profile sportspersons from either side of the border getting married was always going to attract attention. And there was more to gossip about when a woman named Ayesha Siddiqui claimed she was still married to Malik and said she was suing him for mistreating her. The Malik-Mirza wedding, which took place in Hyderabad, became international news. The two now live in Dubai.