5 cricketers who share a huge age difference with their wives

They say love is blind! It has no boundaries and nothing can really come in the way of two people who wish to spend their life together. In an era where stereotypes are being broken, age is just a number. It hardly matters to two people who are in head over heels in love with each other.

Like several others, there are quite a few cricketers as well who share a huge age difference with their partners. Despite this massive age gap with their spouse – be it elder or younger, many of them have been able to lead very happy lives. They constantly give us relationship goals and form stunning pairs. Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni is over 7 years older than his wife Sakshi. Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma is a few months older than him.

Here are some of the other cricketers who share a huge age gap with their partners:

1. Sachin Tendulkar and Anjali Mehta

Sachin Tendulkar and Anjali Tendulkar (then, Anjali Mehta) give us some major couple goals. Anjali has been a massive support to the cricketing legend and Sachin was quite clear in his retirement speech that his career wouldn’t have panned out as it has if it was not for his wife. Anjali first saw Sachin in 1990 at the Mumbai airport when she was there to pick up her mother.

The ‘Master Blaster’, who just scored his maiden Test century, was returning from England along with the Indian team. Anjali wasn’t a follower of cricket back then and didn’t know who her future husband was. But, she found him to be cute and thus, started shouting and waving at him. Then, through a common friend, she managed to get his number. They slowly started seeing each other and shared a long distance relationship before they got hitched in 1995. Anjali is 6 years elder to Sachin but age didn’t turn out to be a hurdle in their relationship.

2. Shikhar Dhawan and Ayesha Mukherjee

Shikhar Dhawan and Ayesha Mukherjee have got quite a unique love story. Ayesha was settled in Australia at quite a young age and already had two children from her previous marriage. Shikhar stumbled upon her on Facebook, where she was a mutual friend of Harbhajan Singh. After stalking her profile, the southpaw was bowled over by her beauty.

It started with some random conversations on the social media platform before it ended up in a union. The couple, who were engaged in 2009, only tied the knot in 2012 after Shikhar established himself as a good cricketer. Ayesha is 10 years older than Dhawan but that never seemed to be a problem. The Indian opener is only about 15 years older than his elder daughter and is indeed a cool dad.

3. Glenn McGrath and Sara Leonardi

Glenn McGrath was earlier married to Jane, who died in 2008 battling breast cancer. As the fast bowler was getting out of this grief, he met Sara Leonardi during the 2009 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The duo met in a party in Cape Town in April 2009. After dating for about seven months, Sara and McGrath tied the knot in November 2010.

Sara is an interior designer born in the USA and mostly brought up in Italy. The duo went to Sicily, Italy where the parents of Sara live. The first marriage ceremony was held in Sydney. McGrath’s current wife is 12 years younger than her husband and is believed to have a massive role in helping the former cricketer get back to normal life after the loss of his first wife.

4. Wasim Akram and Shaneira Thompson

Former Pakistan cricketer Wasim Akram was one of the fiercest fast bowlers of his time. The left-arm pacer first married Huma Mufti in 1995 and they were together for about 15 years before Huma died due to multiple organ failures in 2009 in Chennai. In 2013, Akram fell in love yet again when he visited Melbourne to participate in a local poker tournament at Crown Casino.

He met Shaneira Thompson during that trip and got engaged to her in the same year. Wasim got married to Thompson later that year in Lahore in what was a simple ceremony. However, it is quite astounding that Shaneira Thompson is 17 years younger to the former Pak pacer.

5. Shoaib Akhtar and Rubab Khan

It must have been a fearful sight to see a bowler running from almost the boundary and hurling the balls at the batsmen at a pace of 100 MPH. Shoaib Akhtar was a fierce competitor during his heydays and never gave anything less than his 100 per cent. He always spoke his mind and didn’t shy away from going against his teammates either.

However, he is a man with a golden heart off the field and that managed to impress Rubab Khan. Despite being 18 years younger to him, Rubab agreed for ‘nikah’ with the speedster back in 2014. Their marriage talks started when Akhtar was performing Hajj in Saudi Arabia in 2013. That is where he met Rubab’s father and asked him to find a girl for him. But to the speedster’s surprise, Rubab’s father offered his daughter’s hand to be her better-half.