Hindustan Times
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It was not a story you could ignore: A former cricket captain of Pakistan and India’s reigning tennis superstar marrying.
Great story when it broke, it became even greater in the following days. It became the top drawer across news channels and newspapers.
Some of us, I think, felt a little queasy giving the story so much acreage.
The first announcement was a small story (short if you caught it on television) and created enough buzz. It was big only because it came without a warning – jaws dropped, eyes popped.
So far, so good.
Now came the bombshell: the other woman; well, not exactly – Ayesha Siddiqui. She claimed she was the first wife whom Shoaib had dumped for putting on too much weight.
The boyish looking Shoaib suddenly looked a little less angelic.
The story was now flying to the top of Page One.
It was quickly competing with other, more serious stories, and edging them out.
It was nearly the lead story one night.
This was clearly the story everyone was following.
And as Ayeesha’s story caught on, so did the coverage.
She was the wronged woman. But enough people suspected her of being a publicity hound spoiling a dream story.
Till then, no one knew the story wholly.
We had all heard of Shoaib’s first girl, who was also from Hyderabad. But back then – when they were going around – the story kind of fell of the news pages and no one was quite sure if the two married.
With Sania by his side, Shoaib dismissed all the allegations leveled by Ayesha. No, he did not marry her. And, he said with a smirk, he didn’t even meet the woman in the pictures sent to him by Ayesha.
Sania looked bored, impatient and irritated.
Shoaib looked confident, impatient and irritated.
While the national press grilled the two in Hyderabad, the country gawked. Didn’t they look terrific!
Sure they did. But Ayesha was on television as soon as the two finished.. This was Page One stuff, and of course the lead story on every channel. The day after, it was very quiet. Too quiet, it turned out.
The storm broke the next day.
Shoaib admitted he had indeed married Ayesha. And he divorced her in the same breath.
Was he lying all along? Or did he say this only to finish off the story as the police had been called in and things looked like getting out of hand – Ayesha had come up with a stained dress.
With the deal done, the story quietly went of Page One.
(4 votes, average: 2.75 out of 5)
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