Cricketers Who Dated Bollywood Actresses But Didn't Get Hitched! - Suhel Johar

Cricketers finding love in Bollywood is nothing new, but except a few, many actor-cricketer couples could not survive the test of time. The first instance of Bollywood-cricket couple is that of late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and the gorgeous Sharmila Tagore. The couple fought all odds to be together and lived a happy and exemplary married life.

However, it was not so for other couples like Mohammad Azharuddin-Sangeeta Bijlani, Mohsin Khan-Reena Roy whose marriages didn’t work out well and they parted ways.  And there have been others whose relationships didn’t even culminate into marriage, they just grew apart and split up due to various reasons. Let us have a look at some of these unlucky love stories.

Virat Kohli - Anushka Sharma

From remaining tight-lipped to keeping ‘just friends’ stance, they tried it all in the start, but soon their visible chemistry made them accept their relationship status. In November 2014, while playing in a match against Sri Lanka, Virat openly blew a flying kiss towards Anushka, and that said it all. What followed was just a series of open acceptances from the lovebirds.  Just when you had started to believe that the couple were inseparable, came the reports of their split. The pair, after a two year relationship, split for a brief period at the start of 2016 before rekindling their romance after deciding to give their relationship a second chance.

Zaheer Khan  - Isha Sharvani

Zaheer Khan got officially engaged to actress Sagarika Ghatge in May 2017 but before Sagarika came into his life he had a long time affair with actress Isha Sharvani that went kaput. Zaheer Khan and actress Isha Sharvani could not take the plunge even after being together for so many years. Theirs was an eight year on-and-off romance. The couple first met in 2005 and dated for two years before breaking up.

In 2010, the duo started seeing each other again. There were also rumours that Zaheer and Isha will tie the knot in 2012, but the couple announced their separation instead. Though they didn’t mention the reason, a source close to the actress had revealed that distance was the cause of their split. However, both of them have maintained cordial relations after the split.

Zaheer Khan - VJ Ramona

After Isha Sharvani’s exit from his life Zaheer Khan was again in the news for his love affair with model/actress cum VJ Ramona. It wasn’t long that Zaheer and Ramona was spotted mingling with Ramona in a mall in Mumbai.

Both walked hand in hand, moving around the shops. They seemed very comfortable in each other’s company. When Ramona was asked about her relationship with Zaheer, she did not deny nor accepted being in a relationship with Zaheer but just avoided the question with a sweet smile. The chemistry was definitely missing and their love story just fizzled out sooner than it developed.

Yuvraj Singh - Kim Sharma

From 2003-2007 Yuvraj Singh, was in a strong relationship with former actress Kim Sharma. The charming all-rounder and sizzling Kim dated for four years before parting ways in 2007. It is said that Yuvraj’s mother Shabnam did not approve of her son’s choice, but people close to the cricketer maintained that it was Kim’s “obsessive and abusive nature” that led to their split. Kim went on to marry Kenyan businessman Ali Punjani in 2010 and had moved base to Kenya post her marriage  but moved back to India after separating from her husband a couple of months back.

Yuvraj Singh - Deepika Padukone

After his break-up with Kim, Yuvraj reportedly dated actress Deepika Padukone for a brief period. Deepika Padukone couldn’t resist his charm and started dating him. But as soon as they became the most talked about couple of tinsel town, they parted their ways since she couldn’t come to terms with the cricketer’s dominating nature. According to Deepika, Yuvraj interfered in her personal matters such as whom she met and even her choice of clothes. The leggy actress is presently said to be dating Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh.

Virat Kohli - Izabelle Leite

Seems that just like his colleague Yuvraj, Virat’s link-ups with Bollywood actresses have always made heads turn. Virat Kohli made headlines for dating Brazilian model and actress Izabelle Leite much before he started dating Anushka Sharma. Izabelle has been a part of Bollywood movies like Sixteen and Purani Jeans. And in one of her interviews, Izabelle did actually open up about having dated India’s current Test captain for a while. Back in 2014, she admitted: “Virat was one of the first Indian friends I had when I came to India. We were dating for quite a while. We were together for almost two years. But we didn’t want to make it public. So yeah, Virat and I did have a relationship.”

Virat Kohli - Tamannaah Bhatia

Virat Kohli and Tamannaah Bhatia were rumoured to be in a relationship in between 2012 and 2013. The duo became close after shooting an advertisement together. The pair never went public about their affair and Virat happily moved on in his life after splitting with the Baahubali actress.

Mohammad Azharuddin - Sangeeta Bijlani

Known for being one of the most successful captains of the Indian cricket team, Mohammad Azharuddin was already married when he fell in love with actress Sangeeta Bijlani. They met in early 1990s for a shoot, where they instantly hit it off, and after that they kept bumping into each other every now and then. The two had a highly publicised extra-marital affair, which eventually ended when Azhar divorced his first wife to marry Sangeeta. The two got married in 1996. However, in 2010 the two parted ways for undisclosed reasons and soon filed for a divorce.

Mohsin Khan - Reena Roy

In 1983, at a time when she was at the peak of her career, actress Reena Roy decided to quit Bollywood to marry Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan. But, things did not work out and soon their marriage fell apart. After the divorce, she returned to India, while Mohsin remarried soon after.

Amrita Arora - Usman Afzaal

Distance took a toll on the relationship of former model-actress Amrita Arora and Pakistani-born English cricketer Usman Afzaal. The couple mutually parted ways in 2008 after being together for four years. Though Amrita and Usman made many efforts to visit each other as often as possible, the separation was inevitable. Besides distance, Amrita’s alleged link up with model Sahil Shrof had not gone down well with Usman. In 2009, Amrita got married to businessman Shakeel Ladak and is now mother of two sons.

Sourav Ganguly - Naghma

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, who is lovingly known as “dada”, was already married to his childhood sweetheart Dona, when the reports of his link-up with actress Nagma emerged. The relationship filled gossip columns when the two were spotted together in a temple in 2001, performing some rituals. This further sparked rumours of them tying the knot. However, this relationship did not last long, and Sourav stayed with his wife. Having said that all was just mere a speculation here, is not entirely correct as well. While Sourav maintained a 'No Comments' stance on this personal issue, Nagma went on speaking publicly that there was indeed something on between her and the Prince of Kolkata. In a tell-it-all interview with the Savvy magazine, Nagma had said, “Whatever one says, nobody has denied anything. As long as there is no denial of each other's existence in each other's life, any person can say anything they want.” She had further added, “There was a career at stake, besides other things, so one had to part. One had to weigh a lot of things, rather than be on an ego trip and insist on being together.”

Vivian Richards - Neena Gupta

The actress, Neena Gupta who is now almost 60 was undeniably way beyond her times. In the times, when India was too far from being open-minded, Neena fell in love with West Indies’ Vivian Richards. He is one of the most celebrated cricketers ever in the world history of cricket. However, not only she just dated him but also conceived a baby with him. Vivian was already married and had a wife in West Indies. Neena and Vivian didn’t marry but Neena decided to bring in the baby to the world. The baby is none other than Masaba Gupta, the famous celebrity fashion designer who is now 27 years old. Neena brought up her daughter all alone in Mumbai but got married in 2008 to her long time friend Vivek Mehra. Masaba often visits her father in West Indies and shares a good bond with him.

Wasim Akram - Sushmita Sen

Known to be one of the most graceful beauties of Bollywood, this single mom has had her fair share of alleged link-ups as well, including many marriage rumours. One such link-up was with former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram. Sushmita and Wasim, reportedly got close in 2008 while working together as judges on reality TV show Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena in India. Their close-proximity and on-screen chemistry made many a headlines, including that of the two tying the knot. However, the rumours died down in 2013, when both Sushmita and Wasim dismissed them once and for all!

Ravi Shastri - Amrita Singh

The dashing cricketer Ravi Shastri and actress Amrita Singh were also a hot couple during the mid 1980s. They were very much open about their relationship and confessed about their feelings for each other in every interview and went about painting the town red. But their romance was short-lived and came to an abrupt end. Ravi got married to Ritu Singh in 1990, while Amrita tied the knot a few years later with actor Saif Ali Khan; marriages that eventually ended in divorce.

Imran Khan - Zeenat Aman

He was the playboy of cricket world and she was the sex goddess in the 70's and the combination was very lethal. Their chemistry sizzled and people waited with bated breath to see if they would finally get married. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived affair. And while people in general were disappointed, there were many young men and women, who were relieved it didn't work out and that they were spared of the heartbreak.

Kapil Dev - Sarika

India's World Cup-winning captain had a much-publicised affair with the actress. It is said that Dev's family was happy with his choice. However, this relationship, or the rumours of it, did not last for long. While Kapil Dev went on to marry his long-time on-and-off girlfriend Romi Bhatia, Sarika went on to marry South superstar Kamal Hassan whom she divorced in 2004 after a 17 year marriage.

Sir Gary Sobers - Anju Mahendru

As a 17-year-old upcoming actress, Anju Mahendroo got introduced to West Indies all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers when the cricketer arrived on the 1966-67 tour to India. Sobers and Anju were briefly engaged, but the distance as well as lack of regular communication between the two proved to be the doom for their relationship. Theirs was a "here today, gone tomorrow" relationship. They met, fell in love, got engaged - and then they parted ways almost as soon. It was an abrupt end to a whirlwind romance.