This has got to be the strangest and most tantalizing marriage of two opposing sides ever. First, Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib Malik comes to India and marries India’s hottest tennis player Sania Mirza. Then before we know it the pair moves to the no-man’s land in Dubai where Malik joins hands with Salman Khan to play against Pakistan!!.

At the Dubai Sports City on Thursday May 27 Shoaib created cricketing history by playing in Salman Khan’s Indian team against his fellow team- mates led by Shoaib Akhtar who played against Salman’s Being Human team from Bollywood.

Apparently Shoaib was reluctant to play in Salman’s team. It was wife Sania who convinced him.

Says a source from Salman’s team, “Sania Mirza is a huge Salman fan. When Salman asked her husband to play on his team Shoaib Malik was naturally reluctant. But then Sania’s persuasive powers over her husband worked.When it came to Salman, Sania wouldn’t hear a no even from her own husband.”

That’s how Malik made cricketing history by playing against his country men.

Arbaaz Khan verifies the historic occurrence. However he wouldn’t like to attribute any political motives to Salman’s charitable game in Dubai.

Says Arbaaz, “It was a friendly match with mixed teams Nothing like playing for or against. All in good spirit and for fun.”

However with Pakistan waiting for ‘Sania Bhabhi’ to show up Shoaib Bhai giving in to his wife’s fondness for Salman by playing against Pakistan could be a politically and athletically wrong move.

Will take Indo Pak celeb cricketers to Dubai for cricket match

Salman Khan is organising a cricket match in Dubai to raise funds for his charitable organisation, Being Human. The match will have an Indian XI competing against Pakistan XI.

The Indian side will include Sharman Joshi, Govinda, Jackie Shroff, Riteish Deshmukh, Neha Dhupia, Riya Sen, Zarine Khan, Dia Mirza from Bollywood and cricketers Mohammad Azharuddin and Vinod Kambli.

The Pakistani side will have Strings cheering them on. While plans are yet to be finalised, the tentative dates are May 21 and 22.

A fashion show has been planned for the day after the match.

Courtesy: Mid-Day.com

Shah Rukh Khan, though upset about the ill health of Red Chillies CEO Bobby Chawla, hasn’t put a hold on his work. Bobby was hospitalized following a brain hemorrhage on April 4. Since then, SRK has been taking care of every little thing in his production house.

Though Bobby Chawla’s hospitalization has messed up the entire shooting schedule of Ra.One, Shah Rukh has decided to take the lead to make sure that everything is back on track.

Some of Bobby Chawla’s duties have been taken up by Ra.One director Anubhav Sinha as well, but it is Shah Rukh who is controlling Ra.One completely right now.

According to sources, SRK has taken up all of Bobby Chawla’s work.

His job is now calling up every actor of Ra.One and coordinating their dates, discussing their remuneration, making sure that they get their payments on time and talking to technicians, which includes those coming from abroad, for every single production detail, including the special effects involved in the film.

SRK is almost holding the entire film together as he is doing production- related work which he wouldn’t have done otherwise.

As Bobby was taking care of everything at Red Chillies for all these years, SRK only had to focus on acting. So there is no doubt that the actor is missing Bobby a lot. But SRK has made up his mind that he will not give anyone who is a part of the film a chance to complain about anything.

Finally, after weeks of international drama and some high-stakes diplomacy between nuclear-armed neighbors, all eyes were fixed … on the bride. She was spectacular in a gold silk wedding gown, embellished with ornate red embroidery and more than $35,000 worth of Swarovski crystals. Her raven hair was covered by an 18-foot red veil enriched with gold needlework. The jewels – pearls and diamonds as well as lots of gold in rich adornments — dazzled. Even the large golden nose ring she wore to signify the innocence of the bride, according to Muslim tradition, added high glamour to the entire ensemble.

The reason for the international tension and anticipation? The bride was Sania Mirza, 23, India’s top tennis champion while the groom was Pakistani cricket star Shoaib Malik. The week of marriage celebrations culminated in a lavish reception at a posh hotel in Hyderabad, India, on Thursday night.

Vibrant colors, sumptuous foods

Such is the way at South Asian weddings, where less is not more and the festivities — heady feasts of vibrant colors and sumptuous foods — go on for at least a week. The marriage of Mirza and Malik, both Muslim and two of South Asia’s most celebrated sports royalty, didn’t disappoint.

Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik at their lavish wedding feast.

More than 1,200 guests, including Bollywood stars, sports personalities, artists and politicians, feasted on dozens of ethnic, traditional and European specialties, including 12 different kinds of desserts.

Not that the press was there to report on it — Mirza’s parents barred coverage of the event after sensational headlines over the couple’s engagement set off a media frenzy that dominated the news in Pakistan and India for almost two weeks.

Sonia Gandhi, India’s best-known politician and leader of the ruling Congress Party, congratulated the couple and wished them a lifetime of prosperity. “May all your dreams come true,” she wrote.

Days of tradition

On Monday, at the official signing of a marriage document, called the nikah, Mirza wore the red sari that her mother wore 25 years ago for own nikah. Then on Tuesday, there was the mehendi, when the bride and 400 women, all family friends, had their hands, arms and feet painted in intricate patterns with henna, a vegetable dye, a centuries-old ritual, in preparation for the big reception.

A day later, it was the sangeet, an evening of traditional music and dance.

Srinivasan Kannan, the sports editor of the Indian Mail Today newspaper and a personal friend of Mirza, said the couple never took their eyes off one another. “They are besotted,” he said. “They kept glancing at each other and you could see the love in their eyes. It was all so romantic.”

Days of controversy

It may have been a picture of romantic harmony, but the days leading up to the wedding were steeped in controversy that threatened to derail the fragile diplomatic relations between Pakistan and India.

Another Indian woman, Ayesha Siddiqui, went to the police, claiming that Malik had married her in 2002 on the telephone after she sent him her picture — and that therefore he could not marry Mirza. The Indians seized Malik’s passport and opened a criminal investigation against him. Malik claimed he had been duped, that the girl in the photographs he had received was not the same girl he thought he was marrying. As emotions boiled over, South Asians were riveted.

Finally, Muslim clerics worked out a compromise. Malik sent the woman divorce papers so the marriage to Mirza could go ahead.

Government gifts

After the quickie divorce brought calm, officials from both countries embraced the union. Firdous Awan, Pakistan’s federal minister for Population and Welfare, attended the events and presented a gold crown to Mirza on behalf of the people of Sialkot, Malik’s home town. She also brought gifts from government of Pakistan.

“I am confident this marriage will better the peace process between our two countries,” she said. “Pakistanis will welcome Sania as one of their own.”

The celebrity couple now head for Pakistan where another round of marriage celebrations will begin on April 22.

The fairy tale continues.

Bicycles from BMW

Sania Mirza Engaged To Former Pakistani Captain Shoaib Malik news Sports story daily news After Sania Mirza ends her engagement Mohd Sohrab Mirza

According to sources Indian Tennis star Sania Mirza is all set to marry Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. It was well known that Sania Mirza was supposed to marry Hyderabad based Mohammed Sohrab Mirza. But that marriage was called off few months back.

The news was first leaked by Pakistani channel Geo TV and later the news was all over in Indian channels.

Shoiab Malik is expected to come to Hyderabad on April 10th from Dubai while his family members are expected to come to Hyderabad on 7th itself.

He has three older sisters and one younger brother.

Earlier Shoaib Malik has been attached to Sayali Bhagat, Indian model, actress and former Miss World. Now it is reported that Shoaib Malik is engaged to Sania Mirza and they will marry soon.

The marriage would be in May while the engagement would be in April itself.

Abdul Razzaq single-handedly changed the course of the match with a brilliant innings as Pakistan beat England by four wickets to level their two-match Twenty20 series 1-1 here on Saturday.

At the Dubai Sports City stadium, England scored 148-6 from their 20 overs after being put in by Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik, who was second time lucky with the toss.

In reply, Pakistan looked down and out after being reduced to 78-5 in 13 overs, mainly due to a superb bowling effort from Graeme Swann.

The spinner took 3-14 in his four overs, a haul which included the wickets of Umar Akmal (36), Shoaib Malik (13) and Shahid Afridi (8).

However, Razzaq smashed five sixes in his 46 not out in 18 balls, as Pakistan reached the target with one over to spare.

He first added 48 important runs for the sixth wicket with Fawad Alam, and then hit two sixes in the penultimate over of the match from debutant Ajmal Shahzad to seal the issue in favour of his team.

Malik was full of praise for Razzaq.

“He was just awesome. England set us a very good total. We didn’t start off well, but Razzaq batted really well to get us this game. The way he has come back, I am just speechless and very happy about it,” he said. “We really needed this win after the series we had in Australia. This is a great start as we prepare to defend our title at this year’s ICC World T20 Cup.”

Collingwood was upbeat despite the loss, and said things looked good for the World T20 Cup, which will be played in April-May in the Caribbean Islands.

“We are improving every moment, I congratulate my boys for what they have been doing on the field for quite sometime. Our batting is looking especially stronger. There are some areas we need to work on, but we are definitely becoming a better T20 team,” he said.

After being hit for a boundary off the very first ball in his international career, Shahzad picked up both the openers in his first over.

Imran Nazir was the first to go, trying to heave him over mid-wicket, but the top-edge flew to Tim Bresnan at third-man. Two balls later, Imran Farhat tried to pull a fullish length delivery, but only succeeded in giving a catch to Stuart Broad at mid on. Pakistan were 4-2 at that stage.

Earlier, in England’s innings, Joe Denly failed once again and was the first batsman to be dismissed when he was clean bowled by Yasir Arafat in the fourth over after making just five. But Denley’s fall brought Kevin Pietersen to the wicket. Along with Jonathan Trott, Pietersen added 98 runs for the second wicket, before Trott was unfortunately run out in the 16th over for 39.

Pietersen batted well on a pitch that was playing slow. He smashed three huge sixes and four boundaries in his 40-ball stay at the crease. He also got a life when Shahid Afridi put down a tough chance off Umar Gul in the 13th over. Pietersen was on 45 then.

After both Trott and Pietersen were dismissed in successive overs, England promoted Friday’s hero Euan Morgan and the hard-hitting Luke Wright, but a flurry of wickets saw them fall two runs short of 150.

Arafat was the most successful bowler for Pakistan, taking 3-32.

Afridi made his comeback to the Pakistan team after serving a two-match ban for ball tampering. The all-rounder, who is Pakistan’s regular skipper in Twenty20, came in for Khalid Latif.

Shahzad made his international debut for England after seamer Ryan Sidebottom was ruled out with a thigh injury.

Return to today’s war front with the second chapter in the Modern Warfare series. Modern Warfare 2 continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. Playing as as Sgt. Gary “Roach” Sanderson, your international squad of elite soldiers battle through harrowing combat scenarios that range from snowy mountaintops in Siberia to the crowded streets of Rio de Janiero, Brazil and beyond, facing a terrorist force hellbent on redefining the boundary lines of today’s modern warfare. Players can face the threat alone or with other players in cooperative SpecOps mode. For even more intense combat, take up arms against online foes in enhanced deathmatch warfare on a host of Modern Warfare 2 maps.