I have been a very big fan of Sania Mirza, for as long as I can remember, but this fan following has always been due to her off the court attics and never been due to her on field brilliance. She has this excellent knack of being in the news every now and then, though most of the reasons are not so celebratory ones. As when ever we see a news item on Sania Mirza its either about her 1st or 2nd round exit from a tennis tournament or about her another 15-20 places drop in the world rankings or about her new found injury. Apart from her first few months in the international circuit I have never seen or come across a news item on her talking about her accomplishments or technical brilliance in the field of tennis. But luckily for her and not so luckily for few other deserving sporting stars she has received much more than what she deserves, both from the media and from our nation in terms of support and accolades.Because if talk of some other non-cricketing sporting prospects like Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh or Abhinav Bindra, they have given us many more instances of national pride and glory, but unfortunately they haven't recieved their due from us in terms of encouragement and support. If we leave apart all of them and just consider Saina Nehwal, the young lass has done marvelously well for herself and for our nation in whatever little time she has spent on the badminton court at this tender age. She stands tall at a world ranking of no. 5 and still raring to climb the last few steps of the international ladder but when it comes to the backing and support from the media and the nation she lags behind by miles in comparison to Miss Mirza whose world ranking is 92 at this point in time, but yes, such is the irony and misery in the world of sports and entertainment.
So what I don't understand is a fact that, what is all the hoopla surrounding Ms Mirza's marriage with ex Pakistani cricket player and captain Shoaib Malik, all about? Ex player, because this not so gentle man is currently serving a one year ban on the grounds of indiscipline and poor performance, imposed by Pakistan Cricket board. As usual Ms Mirza has successfully grabbed all the headlines in last 2-3 days and will continue to do so for next fortnight or so, till her post wedding reception at Lahore or Dubai gets over in the most royal and media frenzy fashion. But the funny thing is that ,a section of our country is utterly furious about this wedding, and the likes of Bajrang Dal and some other extremist groups have even taken this marriage as an insult of our nation and gone on record to say things like, we won't let this marriage take place on this holy hindu land, as if this is the first time a cross border marital phenomena is taking place in history of mankind and these outfits are the legal adjudicators of all the marriages taking place in our country or their self proclaimed hindu land.Adding to the funnier side, few of my friends who have themselves been huge fan of Sania Madam, have turned into her biggest critics overnight, venting out their anger vociferously citing that can't she find a good lad in this country of 130 crores people that she had to select one from our not so favorite neighbor, now these guys are behaving as if Miss Mirza has dated all of them full time and all of a sudden decided to dump them all without giving any genuine reason, for marrying Mr Malik:). Now much to media's pleasure Mr Malik's credentials haven't been so good either, he has already married and dumped a Hyderabadi girl, Ayesha in 2002-2005, for alleged reasons of that girl having put on lot of weight (hahahahhaha). Goodness me, I don't know from which corners do these media guys get these stories, but this is what they want, infact I believe they would have been even happier if Mr Malik had a child or two with her ex wife or ex- bollywood flame Sayali Bhagat, too. That would have given them the luxury to twist and turn the story with a much larger ferocity.
But the mood in Pakistan is not so numb as it is in our side, infact as per the daily Jung newspaper of Pakistan, people out there are quiet happy with this story and they have even started celebrating this partnership already, rejoicing as if they have finally snatched Kashmir from India:). Infact with the volatile mood swings and behavior of our neighbors we shouldn't be surprised if the Pakistan Cricket Board lifts away the one year ban from Malik for having done their nation so proud by hooking up, Miss India fame Sania Mirza, as a symbol of a psychological victory over there arch rivals.And we shouldn't be surprised if Malik takes this opportunity of coming to India as a double gain scheme where he not only gets married to Sania over his week long visit but also manages to play a few games in the cash rich IPL-3, I guess after the Sania feather on their cap the Pakistan Government won't stop him from taking part in IPL-3, forgetting the embarrassing snub which Pakistani players received few months back in the IPL auction:). But the problem he might face will be that which franchisee will rope him in? In the present form I am sure only Kings X1 Punjab will take him in gleefully, hoping that he helps them break there losing streak:).
But what infuriated me the most is the manner in which Sania Mirza addressed the media to testify the rumors about her marriage, literally bashing them up saying 'this is not a India Pakistan joint political statement that you guys are so edgy about and don't worry I will keep on playing tennis for India till atleast 2012 olympics'. GOD! I just want to ask who the heck is really worried about you not playing for India now on because nobody cares about a 92 ranked player playing for his/her country or not and on the contrary never so for a person who is in the limelight more so for the losing reasons rather than the winning ones. With all due respect to your personal life, added with all the good wishes for a bright and a joyous married life, I as a common man and your big fan would just like to reinforce a fact that you are fortunate enough to garner so many eye balls and unprecedented attention from this super sporting nation because you are not the one who actually deserves all this, there are scores of others who are the real contender of this attention and support, so if you can't live up to our support and expectation, kindly don't mar them with your arrogance. Agreed that you are 100% correct that people should respect your privacy and not poke there noses in your personal life, as everybody has the right to live his or her life on his or her own terms. But if there are still doubts about the fact that why people admire her so much, let me clarify its certainly not her tennis skills that they admire rather it's her out of the box nose rings, super trendy spectacle glass frames, ultra mini skirts and those well toned thighs which have made them her big fans. Wish she can win a handful fans by virtue of her on field excellence too much like the likes of Paes' and Bhupathis, who have been doing this consistently for last 15 years or so.
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