Shoaib tries to sort out marriage muddle

Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik attempted in an interview published on Sunday to end confusion about his marital status ahead of his celebrity wedding to Indian tennis star Sania Mirza.

"Sania Mirza will be my first wife. I have been cheated by Ayesha Siddiqui," Malik said, referring an Indian woman who claims he married her "by telephone" in 2002 and that she possesses documents to prove their alliance.

In an interview with The Times of India, Malik said he began a telephone relationship with Siddiqui in 2001 after she sent him photographs.

He and his family repeatedly made attempts to meet Siddiqui as he wanted to marry her but she always refused, he said. Malik admitted to the newspaper that in 2002 that he signed a "nikahnama" (wedding agreement) "thinking the girl I was marrying was the one in the photographs."

But "the girl who was accepting the proposal was someone else. That's cheating," he said, without giving further details.

In yet another twist, Malik claimed he had spent time with Ayesha Siddiqui's "elder sister" who told him that Ayesha would not meet him as she had put on weight. Malik said he now believes the "sister" was actually Ayesha herself.

The labyrinthine and often contradictory tale has attracted avid public attention across Pakistan and India, two countries normally locked in fierce rivalry.

AFP