5 cricketers who married their relatives

Nowadays cricketers have a crazy fan following. The emergence of the digital medium has further allowed the fans to keep a constant track of their superstars. Notably, the audience is always interested in the personal lives of these players. They are eager to know about their love relationships and marriages.

Most of the time the cricketers have received tons of blessings and congratulatory messages for their wedding ceremonies. Among them, certain marriages are unique as the players have chosen the bride from within the family. Though such relations are subjected to social stigma these players have put love ahead of everything.

Here is the list of 5 cricketers who married their relatives

1) Shahid Afridi – Nadia Afridi

The cricketer who has got an equal amount of love and hate from the fans is Shahid Afridi. The former Pakistan skipper is known for his humility and power game. The swashbuckler was a genuine match-winner with his all-round skills. He was one of the few players who never allowed the situation to dictate his batting style.

Keeping all his controversies aside, one can say that Afridi was a valuable cricketer for the Asian team in winning championships. In his heydays, Boom Boom charmed the cricketing fraternity with his hitting skills which included a lot of female fans. Their dreams came shattering down when he tied the knot at an early age of 20.

He decided to share the rest of his life with his maternal cousin, Nadia Afridi. Since then they have been together for almost 19 years. Nadia is a very reserved character who has never accompanied Shahid for any of his games. They are the proud parents of 4 daughters named Aqsa, Ansha, Ajwa, and Asmara.

2) Virender Sehwag – Aarti Ahlawat

“A thorough entertainer” is the perfect choice of words to explain the pyrotechnics of the evergreen Indian opener, Virender Sehwag. Be it on the field or off it, the Delhi cricketer has weaved his magic and has become a fan favourite. His ability to play the game in its purest form without complicating the process was a rarity in the gentlemen’s game.

Along the way, the Nawab of Najafgarh set some elusive batting records and he has a page to himself in the history books of Indian cricket. Sehwag did offbeat things in his style and the same can be said about his personal life. He married his childhood friend in a dream wedding hosted by the former finance minister, Arun Jaitley.

Aarti Ahlawat was the lady’s love of Sehwag and their story began when the Indian cricketer was just 7 years old. It took a long time for the couple to convince their families as they were distinct cousins. Eventually, they got the desired result and now it has been 15 years since they last took their wedding vows.

3) Saeed Anwar – Lubna

Breaking the mould is not an easy thing in Pakistan cricket but the yesteryear opening batsman, Saeed Anwar did it successfully. The southpaw was one of the elegant batsmen to emerge out of the country and some of his shots awed the cricketing world. He was also the batting mainstay of the Men in Green in the late ’90s.

Particularly Saeed Anwar had a knack of scoring big runs against the arch-rivals, India. Nobody can forget his Chennai classic of 194 where he thrashed the Indian bowlers to all parts of the ground. He was a cricketer who liked to stay away from the limelight and it is quite evident from his marriage which was a muted event.

In 1996 he got hitched to his cousin, Lubna who was a doctor by profession. Coincidentally it was the same year when he flourished in the Test arena as he averaged 63. Anwar was enjoying happy times in his life until a tragedy struck in 2001 in the form of his daughter’s death. Though the couple stood the testing time he was not able to continue with the game and retired after the 2003 World Cup.

4) Mustafizur Rahman – Samia Parvin

Since the 2015 World Cup, the stocks of Bangladesh team have been rising in white-ball cricket and Mustafizur Rahman deserves his due credit. The speedster has changed the dynamics of the country’s bowling unit and his records speak volumes. He has outfoxed world-class batsmen with his bag of tricks.

Right now the left-arm pacer is a hot commodity in the T20 leagues around the world. More than that now he is the spearhead of the pace attack of Bangla Tigers who narrowly escaped the Christchurch bombings earlier in the year. Immediately after the horrific incident, Rahman took the time to drop the anchor in his personal life.

The youngster tied the knot with his maternal cousin, Samia Parvin. She is a psychology student at Dhaka University. It was further added by the family that the occasion helped the pacer overcome the depression caused by the near-death experience. The wedding reception was celebrated in a grand fashion after the 2019 World Cup.

5) Mosaddek Hossain – Sharmin Samira Usha

The Bangladesh cricket is in safe hands and the gifted youngster, Mosaddek Hossain can vouch for it. He has a tremendous record in the domestic arena and showed his glimpses of talent in the recently concluded World Cup. He is the only batsmen in the country to score 3 double-centuries in the first-class cricket.

Hossain is equally adept at tackling pace and spin and can play shots all around the park. With the seniors of the team getting into the other side of ’30s, he is surely a prospect in the coming years. His professional career is going to reach a new high but the situation is quite the opposite in his personal life.

In 2012 at a tender age of 16, he got married to his cousin, Sharmin Samira. It was all rosy till last year and then suddenly he was in the news for all the wrong reasons. He was accused of harassing his wife over dowry. She pressed charged against him and he almost lost his place in the squad. The family relations might have hit rock bottom as the couple has parted ways.

These players have done marital commitments within blood relations and most of them have found the right life partners.